Theatre Register
Porgy And Bess

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
Music: George GershwinLyrics: Ira Gershwin & DuBose HeywardBook: DuBose Heyward

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 not recorded. 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 5 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.

In the literature39 passages

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

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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