Shows · Porgy and Bess · Alvin Theatre, 1935
The run closed January 25, 1936
- Opened
- October 10, 1935
- Closed
- January 25, 1936
- Performances
- 124
- Previews
- Unknown
- Theatre
- Neil Simon Theatre
Of the 1,389 productions we hold that opened in the 1930s and carry a performance count, this is the 219th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of Porgy and Bess 7 more that season
| 1942 | Majestic Theatre Revival · Robert Ross | 286 perf. |
| 1943 | 44th Street Theatre Revival · Robert Ross | 24 perf. |
| 1944 | City Center Revival · Robert Ross | 64 perf. |
| 1953 | Revival Revival | 305 perf. |
| 1976 | Uris Theatre Revival · Jack O'Brien | 122 perf. |
| 1983 | Radio City Music Hall Revival · Jack O'Brien | 45 perf. |
| 2012 | Richard Rodgers Theatre Revival · Diane Paulus | 322 perf. |
Who was in it24 named
Anne Wiggins Brown
Olive Ball
Ford L Buck
Alexander Campbell
George Carleton
Henry Davis
The Eva Jessye Choir Eva Jessye Choral Conductor
George Lessey
Burton Mcevilly
Gus Simons
Harold Woolf
Ray Yeates
12 of these 24 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 12 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name, so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Creative team
- Director
- Rouben Mamoulian
- Producer
- Theatre Guild
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Recordings 41 held for the work
None of these is attributed to this staging. They are filed against Porgy and Bess, and nothing says which production any of them documents. Closing that join is the point of this catalogue and it is not closed yet.
Around this production
George Gershwin spent a summer living on Folly Island near Charleston, absorbing Gullah music and culture. He died just two years after the premiere, at age 38.
- Another hopeful sign is the number of opera companies that have added musical theatre works to their repertoires. Not only does this help break down artificial barriers, it also creates new audiences for such notable examples as the Kern-Hammerstein Show Boat , the Gershwin-Heyward Porgy and Bess , the Rodgers-Hammerst… Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 13
- Though it was not well received and was removed after opening night, the work was a forerunner of the composer’s later full-length opera, Porgy and Bess. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 48
- Still more musical drama than opera, Porgy and Bess was performed in 23 cities in the United States and Canada, and — under the auspices of the State Department — in 28 countries throughout Europe (including well-publicized engagements in Leningrad and Moscow), the Middle East and Latin America. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 98
- St. Louis Woman seems also to have been a close relative of Porgy and Bess. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 129
- Something of a white Northern counterpart to Porgy and Bess, the work takes a melodramatic look at the inhabitants of a New York City tenement during an oppressively hot summer day. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 130
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging.
- No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
- Which of the 41 recordings of Porgy and Bess document this run, if any.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.
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