"Life’s No Good At All Without A Song"
That’s the production’s trade-off. It’s a “Porgy and Bess” connected to the truth in the storytelling set in a Catfish Row community that is vivid and vital, with great actor-singers with musical experience rather than operatic chops (with a few exceptions, such as Philip Boykin’s riveting Crown)
“Philip Boykin’s Crown was GOOD. At least twice the size of Bess, with enormous chiseled upper arms (that I will remember long after I forget this production), Crown was literally a terrifying presence whenever he was on stage. He was perfectly cast and did a great job.”
American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) Loeb Drama Center, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA opens its 2011-12 season with The Gershwin’s’ Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin. The adaptation by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and Obie Award-winning composer Diedre L. Murray, directed by A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus, with choreography by Ronald K. Brown, Led by Audra McDonald as Bess and Norm Lewis as Porgy. The Company includes David Alan Grier as Sporting Life, Joshua Henry as Jake,
Phillip Boykin as Crown,
Nikki Renee Daniels as Clara, Bryonha Marie Parham as Serena, NaTasha Yvette Williams as Maria, Cedric Neal as Frazier, J.D. Webster as Mingo, Heather Hill as Lily, Phumzile Sojola as Peter, and Nathaniel Stampley as Robbins. The ensemble also includes Allison Blackwell, Roosevelt Andre Credit, Trevon Davis, Joseph Dellger, Wilkie Ferguson, Alicia Hall Moran, Andrea Jones-Sojola, and Lisa Nicole Wilkerson; the Coroner is Joseph Dellger.
August 17 – October 2, 2011
Opens for the reviewing press on August 31 at 7:00 pm.
Performances are at the
Loeb Drama Center,
64 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Phillip Boykin
Phillip Boykin
"Porgy and Bess On Broadway" (CD)
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