(Kinda) The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess

{Originally appeared in Loomings}

    So, it seems like the talk of the town these days isn't the lack of Book of Mormon tickets available, nor is it the odd mystery of how Memphis is still running. No, my friends, it appears all of the lights on Broadway burn with rage over Diane Paulus' (director of the revival of Hair) attempt to "flesh out" Porgy and Bess in her newest revival. Retitled The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (because apparently f*** co-author Dubose Heyward, am I right?), the revival features changes so dramatic it led none other than Stephen Sondheim (The Stanley Kubrick of musical theatre) to write an angry letter to the New York Times (which was the best thing he's written since Passions.* Oh!).

    For those not well versed in musical theatre history, George Gershwin is undoubtedly the greatest American composer, and his masterpiece (co-written with his brother Ira and the above mentioned Dubose Heyward) is Porgy And Bess, a "folk-opera" (and considered by many to be the greatest American opera) written in 1935 about the struggles of two African-Americans in Charleston, South Carolina. Not only is this the quintessential piece of American musical theatre, revered by any American to ever put notes on a page and folks on a stage, it's so good it made rich white people care about the plight of African Americans in 1935! Sure, is it a little out of date? Yeah. Is it not totally in-touch with the African American community? Sure, Duke Ellington said the original production fed into racial stereotypes and made black men sound ignorant, but he would later praise the first revival with "Your Porgy and Bess the superbest, singing the gonest, acting the craziest, Gershwin the greatest." And the truth is, for two middle-class Jewish guys deciding to write a show about the plight of the African American in 1935, making a show that ended up becoming the first with an unsegregated audience in national theatre history, I think we can all live with a few speed-bumps.

    The fact of the matter is some of the more radical changes in the show (a lesbian love affair and an altered, "happier" ending) were removed from the finished product which opened recently, probably in part due to the uproar, but back-stories are still added and lyrics revised, and people still dissatisfied.

    One might want to wonder why it is we feel we must "revise" everything, to make it more accessible. Is it a cultural dumbing-down? I don't think so. I think it's a cultural cowardice. For the same reason we take the infamous “n-word” out of Huckleberry Finn, we feel the need to hide all the hate and all the political incorrectness in art of the past, but we fail to realize that in doing so we’re destroying part of what makes that work great: it’s place in history. Porgy And Bess is a period piece, though maybe not in its day. It’s concepts and views on race are important, if not accurate. The Gershwins and Dubose were trying to create something wholly American, something beautiful and artistic, and while they may not have been as racially sensitive as they could have been, Porgy And Bess is far from a minstrel show. It depicts, perhaps not the African American community in the 30’s, but at least a progressive white America’s view of the African American culture. The brilliant works of Langston Hughes have their place in society, as does Native Son and Invisible Man. They stand as reflections on the African American experience as an aspect of the American cultural landscape. But then so too does Porgy And Bess have a place. So too is it essential part of understanding the trials and triumphs of civil rights in America? Is anyone (besides the crew behind the new production) that troubled by Porgy And Bess’ racial errors? I’m pretty sure everyone’s competent enough to go “It was the 30’s. That’s just how people thought back then” rather than try and hide how people thought. 

    Indeed, for some, Porgy And Bess could stand as a testament of how far we’ve come since then in terms of race relations and understanding. For others, the show can still be viewed as remarkably racially progressive, despite its few non-PC moments. Hell, is Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? any less progressive or poignant because it uses the term “Negro”? It upsets me to see that certain people in the theatrical world (and the entertainment field in general) seem to think less of the black community by trying to “be sensitive”, as if to say that at the slightest hint of a non-PC attitude towards race in a historical piece of art, the average African American will shut down and be unable to enjoy the piece as a whole. I’m not saying that writers today should go back to putting characters in black-face (though Tropic Thunder did without much complaint), I’m saying we shouldn’t try and hide the fact that once-upon-a-time, we did.

   I cannot claim, and nor would I try to, that I understand how it feels for an African American to see dated stereotypes on stage, but if I had to, I’d imagine it’s similar to someone like myself sitting through La Cage Aux Folles, a show littered with glittery gay stereotypes (a musical version of the French film of the same name, known to most American audiences by its state-side remake The Birdcage) that made the gay man “fun and friendly” to mainstream straight America. Does it portray all gays as flamboyant girly-men? Yes, as art throughout Hollywood and Broadway continue to do today, and I will go out on a limb and say that the “flaming gay man” is this generations “ignorant black man” as the vile but socially accepted stereotype we have to combat.

    So yes, La Cage can be offensive if one balks at every stereotype and non-PC behavior displayed on stage (granted, no one has tried to PC-ify La Cage a la Porgy since there seems to be less interest in protecting the imagined delicate sensibilities of the gay community). But it’s also a touching musical with a good score and a gorgeous love story at its heart, and all that and more can be said for the classic Porgy And Bess. Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel The Sun Also Rises captures the spirit, the culture and the language of the expatriate lifestyle of the late 20’s, and at one point the infamous n-word is used. Again, I cannot speak for how it feels for an African American to come across that word, and whether or not the average African American reader’s sensibilities are so damaged they cannot continue reading the novel, and would rather the word removed than read the original text. What I can say is that less than 40 pages later, the word “faggot” is used, which is another word loaded with hate, one that has plagued the gay community for many years. I continued reading, unaffected. I saw past the bygone bigotry and realized the beauty at the heart of the work, without anyone having to “revise” it for me. I’ve been able to do the same with La Cage Aux Folles, and I encourage anyone of any race to do the same with Porgy And Bess. The original, unsanitized, un-PC, brave and bold Porgy And Bess. Because if you do, instead of getting the “new and improved” version, you get a simple time capsule of history and beauty, like the gorgeous gem below. And that kind of beauty should not ever be tampered with.

*Actually, his book Finishing The Hat is exceptionally good.