Old Musical in Manhattan

Porgy and Bess (music by George Gershwin; book by DuBose Heyward; lyrics by DuBose Heyward & Ira Gershwin) reached Broadway for the fifth time since 1935. Such popularity is indeed deserved: the great roll call of Gershwin tunes alone--Summertime, A Woman Is a Sometime Thing, I Got Plenty o' Nuttin', Bess, You Is My Woman Now, It Ain't Necessarily So--would be enough to explain it. But Porgy and Bess approaches authentic American opera: its very story is picturesquely American and unblushingly operatic. The crammed, violent life of Catfish Row inspired George Gershwin to something beyond show music, though it is still the show music, after some 20 years, that seems inspired.

All in all, the current uncut production is the most impressive one so far. LeVern Hutcherson and Leontyne Price bring a great deal to the title roles, and Cab Calloway is a highly effective Sportin' Life.

This Porgy and Bess is musically full-bodied; dramatically, it stresses something primitive and makes earlier productions seem in retrospect a little genteel. Its chief shortcoming: without quite achieving the musical statue of opera--the music sometimes pants and strains--it becomes a bit too sprawling and noisy for musi-comedy. But such excesses are a kind of tribute to its exuberance.

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