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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Theater Stephen Sondheim Rips Suzan-Lori Parks (and the Rest of the People Who Are Rewriting "Porgy and Bess") a New One

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:01 AM

Diane Paulus, Suzan Lori-Parks, and some other folks are on a mission to adapt George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess for commercial audiences on Broadway. They are adding dialogue to the opera and a more "upbeat" ending.

His lordship Stephen Sondheim is not amused:

What Ms. Paulus wants, and has ordered, are back stories for the characters. For example she (or, rather, Ms. Parks) is supplying Porgy with dialogue that will explain how he became crippled. She fails to recognize that Porgy, Bess, Crown, Sportin’ Life and the rest are archetypes and intended to be larger than life and that filling in “realistic” details is likely to reduce them to line drawings...

Then there is Ms. Paulus’s condescension toward the audience. She says, “I’m sorry, but to ask an audience these days to invest three hours in a show requires your heroine be an understandable and fully rounded character.” I don’t know what she’s sorry about, but I’m glad she can speak for all of us restless theatergoers. If she doesn’t understand Bess and feels she has to “excavate” the show, she clearly thinks it’s a ruin, so why is she doing it? I’m sorry, but could the problem be her lack of understanding, not [lyricist DuBose] Heyward’s?

It's fun to watch Sondheim sink his teeth into some fellow artists, and I agree that the idea of "updating" and "improving" Porgy and Bess sounds arrogant and foolish—but theater people are allowed to be (encouraged to be!) arrogant and foolish. If you can't be arrogant and foolish in theater, where can you be arrogant and foolish? Politics will be the only place left.

The rewrite will succeed or fail on its own merits. Either way, it can't hurt Gershwin's opera.

More importantly: if you haven't read Charles Mudede's insightful and surprisingly personal review of Porgy and Bess now playing at Seattle Opera, you should. The final two paragraphs are some of the best criticism I've read all year.

Comments (21) RSS

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I so totally wanted to go see Porgy and Bess... until I went to the McCaw Hall website and saw how much the tickets would cost.

I still don't think I've quite recovered from the shock. :/

Posted by merry on August 11, 2011 at 11:11 AM

Wasn't that great! The perfect evisceration. I appreciate your efforts to parse what he said. I adore how he still gave full props to Audra for her amazing vocal artistry. How I love that woman.

Posted by gloomy gus on August 11, 2011 at 11:22 AM

I've seen the operatic version of Porgy and Bess, and frankly, the filmed "Broadway" version is better.

It's annoying and sloggy when all the dialogue is that operatic sing-song, and the songs themselves seemed to be slowed down to operatic molasses.

However, even the filmed "Broadway" version didn't rewrite for a "happy" ending!

Posted by judybrowni on August 11, 2011 at 11:23 AM

last time i checked, Stephen Sondheim ain't black. might we hear from some black folks on this, like Stew? or perhaps Spike Lee?

Posted by scary tyler moore

on August 11, 2011 at 11:26 AM

Sondheim didn't have a problem with the vile revival of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, which set the play in a walk-in freezer and reduced Seurat's paintings to a powerpoint presentation, or with Trevor Nunn's appalling revival of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, set in what looked like an abandoned funeral home and rethought Anne Egerman as a frigid castrating c*nt from hell.

Posted by Roscoe on August 11, 2011 at 11:34 AM

@4 - Yes, let's hear the official black word on this. Who's the current president of black people?

Posted by MacCrocodile on August 11, 2011 at 11:44 AM

@4 yeah.. because Gershwin and Heyward are unavailable for comment...

Posted by Beetlecat on August 11, 2011 at 11:48 AM

@4 You bring up a good topic. The theater industry, (as well as film) have reached a creative dead end. I don't think it's because the amount of genius has dried up, but because no one wants to risk their money on something that hasn't been proven. Nothing truly original is being produced, it's all remakes, re-images, remixes, and, in this case, essentially using the title to draw an audience and not much else.

Also, I'd like proof that Mr. Mudede didn't write his review before he bothered to show up for the performance. We all know his methodology in regards to film/theater criticism.

Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on August 11, 2011 at 11:48 AM

No kidding, @1.

I was surprised to see a link on the Seattle Opera site to the e-book "Porgy & Bess Spotlight Guide, Kindle edition."

Is this a thing? Do wealthy, busy people whip out their Kindles in unison as the house lights dim to bone up on the culture they're about to imbibe?

I hope not. I'm irritated by all the cell phones lighting up at random during movies, and by their owners' indignant conviction that they couldn't possibly be annoying anyone as they're "only" texting.

Posted by rob!

on August 11, 2011 at 11:57 AM

@ 5, could it be that those revivals didn't change the story or music? This new Porgy and Bess does just that.

Posted by Matt from Denver on August 11, 2011 at 12:10 PM

is sondheim is the current president of gay broadway people? hmm?

Posted by scary tyler moore

on August 11, 2011 at 12:19 PM

@11 - He's an elder statesman. The gay broadway equivalent of Benjamin Franklin, but with more French hookers.

Posted by MacCrocodile on August 11, 2011 at 1:45 PM

I've reread the Times piece and still can't tell if this is the "operatic" version, or the Broadway version, played as a musical.

If the "operatic" version, I predict that Broadway theater goers reject it, no matter a happy ending and backstory for the leads.

Posted by judybrowni on August 11, 2011 at 2:42 PM

@1,

For the future, if you plan way ahead, you can get tickets for as low as $25, but those go fast. The next tier up is $54, I think.

You can also get a subscription for a cheap seat for about as much as you would pay for a last minute single ticket.

Posted by keshmeshi on August 11, 2011 at 3:02 PM

@13:

They're one and the same. The original operatic version premiered on Broadway in 1935, and a pared down "musical theatre" version, which merely shortened the script and reduced the cast and orchestra sizes, ran on Broadway in 1942.

Posted by COMTE

on August 11, 2011 at 3:09 PM

@ 14 - Thanks. I looked around the site at all the 'Ways To Save', but it seemed I was either too old or too young to save money...

Just not used to the three-figure ticket, I guess...

Posted by merry on August 11, 2011 at 3:20 PM

You can get standing room tickets for only $15 at the Seattle Opera office on John St. I did and after the first break I sneaked into an empty seat.

Posted by Weekilter on August 11, 2011 at 3:25 PM

Sondheim did the last really funny and creative musical in America, didn't he?

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Posted by sgt_doom on August 11, 2011 at 5:07 PM

@4 and @6: I am neither Stew, Spike nor the president of all black folks but I am black and i detest the original version of Porgy and Bess. I like the music, hate the dialect which does not ring true to me. I am excited to see the new production which from the description I think has possibilities. I will reserve judgment until I've seen it. l

Posted by jes on August 11, 2011 at 8:36 PM

@4 and @6: I am neither Stew, Spike nor the president of all black folks but I am black and i detest the original version of Porgy and Bess. I like the music,but hate the dialect which does not ring true to me. Yes, I realize that uneducated black folks in 1935 did not speak the King's (or is it the Queen's) English but the dialog in Porgy seems just off.

I am excited to see the new production which from the description, I think has possibilities. I will reserve actual judgment until I've seen it. l

Posted by jes on August 11, 2011 at 8:43 PM

I'd be more skeptical of the "rewrite" if it wasn't being workshopped by some very prominent black women theater artists. Susan-Lori Parks is a MacArthur Genius and a Pulitzer winner (and a Tony, and a Drama Desk, and an Obie...). She hasn't been at it as long as Sondheim, but she's at least as good a writer as he is and a lovely, grounded human being as well.

So I'll wait and see, thanks.

Posted by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot