porgy & bess

I journeyed to the A.R.T. last night for a performance of Porgy and Bess. Sondheim has written about the revival: "I can think of no better Porgy than Norm Lewis nor a better Bess than Audra McDonald, whose voice is one of the glories of the American theater. Perhaps Ms. Paulus and company will have earned their arrogance." The arrogance he speaks of is that the play has been re-imagined, mixing musical theatre styles with it's operatic origination, and adding character development. Sondheim deems all this unnecessary and even insulting to the Gershwin original. I don't know the original, and make the [probably naive] assumption that the reworkings create a show more accessible for the modern audience. In a cultural age where Wicked and a rock-interpretation of Spring Awakening are top bills, it seems mixing gospel, and musical theatre styles with opera would make for a successful revival. But who am I to disagree with Sondheim? I do agree with him that McDonald and Lewis are brilliant casting choices for the title rolls. I've never seen Lewis live before (whose Broadway credits include The Little Mermaid, Les Mis, Chicago, Miss Saigon...) and watching him on stage last night was a treat. I didn't know I was also going to see David Alan Grier in-the-flesh. He was perfectly sleazy in the role of Sporting Life. And despite Sondheim, I don't think anyone in our standing-ovation-audience would doubt the plans for this production to hit Broadway in the Fall.

I brought a group of teenagers into Cambridge for the production. They were thrilled- one said it was her favorite show we've seen all year. I was impressed by our students. They dealt with the heavy material- drug use, racism, sexuality- well, at only 12 or 14 years old. And they were great audience members- thoughtful, engaged, and attentive to boot. Take that, old man who glared at me for bringing a group of teens to see the play last night. Theatre is for the people, buck-oh, and teens are people too. So there.

My favorite part of the evening was- aside from the INCREDIBLE set and light design?- the ride home. What a relief to make it to the ride home! At that point, we've made it through:

- the drive in (the kids are MUCH more awake for the drive in, which means LOUD),

- the show (is there nudity in the show that we don't know about? is there explicit content the parents are going to hate me for exposing their children to?)

- the intermission (go to the bathroom in groups please, don't go to the snack counter alone please, stop crowding the snack counter kids, seriously? 3 bags of m'n'ms? is that necessary?)

The drive home is the final stretch, and without fail we can pull the kids into a musical theatre sing-along. Natalie and I start singing from the front seat of the plane-like-van (it sounds like a PLANE taking off, and I look a hoot driving the thing), and within measures the kids have joined in, redirected it, and are off to passing the next 40 minutes singing beautifully behind us. Sailing through the empty evening streets with a singing group of incredible kids? After going to see a show? That's a pretty cool job.