Porgy and Bess
Shows · Porgy and Bess
Universally accepted as the most popular opera written by an American composer, Porgy and Bess began life in 1925 as the novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward. Heyward’s setting of Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, and his dramatic story of the crippled beggar Porgy, the seductive Bess, the menacing Crown, and the slinky cocaine dealer Sportin’ Life fired George Gershwin’s imagination even before Heyward and his wif…
- Opened
- 1935
- Performances
- 124
- Type
- Musical
- Era
- Early
Productions8 on Broadway
| 1935 | Alvin Theatre Original. October 10, 1935 · Rouben Mamoulian | 124 performances |
| 1942 | Majestic Theatre Revival. January 22, 1942 · Robert Ross | 286 performances |
| 1943 | 44th Street Theatre Revival. September 13, 1943 · Robert Ross | 24 performances |
| 1944 | City Center Revival. February 7, 1944 · Robert Ross | 64 performances |
| 1953 | Revival Theatre unknown. March 10, 1953 | 305 performances |
| 1976 | Uris Theatre Revival. September 25, 1976 · Jack O'Brien | 122 performances |
| 1983 | Radio City Music Hall Revival. April 7, 1983 · Jack O'Brien | 45 performances |
| 2012 | Richard Rodgers Theatre Revival. January 12, 2012 · Diane Paulus | 322 performances |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Recordings 41 albums held
Licensing 6 entries
| US | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| US | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| US | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| UK | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| UK | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| UK | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.
39 passages naming Porgy and Bess, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.
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… book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p13
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. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p48
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. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p98
St. Louis Woman seems also to have been a close relative of Porgy and Bess. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p129
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. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p130
Though based on Arna Bontemps’ novel, God Sends Sunday, St. Louis Woman seems also to have been a close relative of Porgy and Bess. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p153
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