The No. 1 Reason To See Porgy and Bess: Audra McDonald and Phillip Boykin’s brawl during “What You Want With Bess?”
At the top of Act II, Bess’ fearsome pimp Crown, incredibly played by Phillip Boykin, returns from hiding from the police to remind Bess that he will soon be taking her away from the cozy life she’s made for herself in his absence. Bess, who has found tender love with Porgy and a sense of community with her neighbors in Catfish Row, has no intention of returning to her murky past. She sings “What You Want With Bess?,” an appeal to Crown, highlighting the notion that he can find a better, younger woman to satisfy him. McDonald’s delivery signifies the first time in a long time that Bess has stood up for herself. Of course, the concept of being denied only makes Crown desire Bess more, and despite her newfound inner strength, she is no match for his massive arms. As McDonald wails through the song, she and Boykin engage in a gruesome physical struggle. The gripping, pulling, and punching between McDonald and Boykin is raw and horrifically real. Yet the violence is not what makes the scene great; it’s McDonald’s unaffected singing throughout the brutality that creates this hypnotic juxtaposition. Credit also goes to Boykin, who is firmly committed to the viciousness of his character. However, McDonald’s unwavering operatic voice throughout this mayhem is astonishing.

VULTURE By Scott Brown

Crown, is an especially deft mini-opera of evasion, resistance, temptation, and final, furious acceptance: McDonald’s dramatic gifts meet and often exceed her storied vocal range. As Crown, the excellent Philip Boykin—an opera-trained performer with a hydrofracking basso—seems to thrive on the character’s lavish Scarpian villainy: he was hissed, delightedly, by the crowd, at his curtain call, and loved every minute of it.

By LINDA WINER

Phillip Boykin sings and acts powerfully as a man-monster of a Crown

VULTURE By Scott Brown

Crown, is an especially deft mini-opera of evasion, resistance, temptation, and final, furious acceptance: McDonald’s dramatic gifts meet and often exceed her storied vocal range. As Crown, the excellent Philip Boykin—an opera-trained performer with a hydrofracking basso—seems to thrive on the character’s lavish Scarpian villainy: he was hissed, delightedly, by the crowd, at his curtain call, and loved every minute of it.

THEATER REVIEW | ‘THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS’; A New Storm’s Brewing Down on Catfish Row

By BEN BRANTLEY

Published: January 13, 2012

…For devastating theatrical impact, it’s hard to imagine any hurricane matching the tempest that is the extraordinary Audra McDonald’s Bess at the moment she is reunited with her former lover, Crown, played by Phillip Boykin.

But as soon as Mr. Boykin’s Crown calls out to Ms. McDonald’s Bess, you know she’s a goner. Mr. Boykin is a big man with a big rumbling baritone, and Bess (and the audience) hasn’t heard a male voice of that power — that is, one that matches her lusty soprano — since he disappeared in the first act. And though part of their angry, erotically charged encounter is spoken, the boundaries between speech and song blur here.

…Mr. Boykin inhabit a world of exalted, dangerous passions that is separate from the rest of the denizens of Catfish Row.