PORGY AND BESS. To 5 May 2007.
London
PORGY AND BESS
by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, Ira and Ira Gershwin adapted by Trevor Nunn.
Savoy Theatre To 5 May 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm (to 7 April).
from 9 April Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Tue, Thur, Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 55min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 164 8787.
www.porgyandbess.co.uk (£3 transaction fee by ‘phone & online).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 November.
Reduced circumstances can’t stifle this story and its score.
This isn’t the first time the Gershwins’ jazz-inflected opera has had a good hour lopped off its playing time, though here it’s also downsized to the performing forces of a musical. However, no production of the full opera’s in sight and all the big numbers are present – ‘Summertime’, ‘Plenty o’ Nuttin’’, ‘Bess, You is My Woman Now’ and ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ among them.
But they rarely seem ‘big’, or anyway long, numbers here. Early on especially, there’s a sense of hurry, the feel of an anthology, not helped by a plot that hurtles along in the last hour, depending on characters established earlier. Crown is a clear villain. But Bess, his arrogant tart with a “happy dust” habit, has barely time offstage when her man flees to cover her red dress with subdued clothing before she’s a changed woman.
Crippled Porgy, who shelters and loves her, is clearly a good guy, but the piece’s morality when it comes to murder is hazy and wavy, while the prim judgmentalism of the respectable ladies of Catfish Row (here an aptly scrubbed, ramshackle courtyard) and Crown’s God-challenging fury seem more theatrical rhetoric to up the temperature than things with dramatic consequences. Indeed, Bess goes from shunned harlot to valued surrogate mother with little dramatic explication.
Nicola Hughes sings her beautifully, though she never seems a native of poor Black Charleston, more a distinguished visitor graciously slumming it. It’s hard to believe in her settling into Porgy’s poky shack. Clarke Peters, dragging his feet so standing-up is a major operation, gives Porgy conviction a sombre conviction. Musically, his lower register is firm but there’s effort at the top of the music’s range, especially on sustained notes. This also affects O-T Fagbenle’s raffishly elegant Sporting Life, whose sinister nature gradually emerges.
And all the skill in the musical world can’t stop a band of 20 sounding constricted at George Gershwin’s climaxes, the music stretching to escape into fuller expression. So, it’s a decision: to take the compromise bird in the hand or to save up for when (and if) the real thing comes along.
Jasbo Brown/Swing: Paul Isles.
Clara: Lorraine Velez.
Mingo: Des Coleman.
Sporting Life: O-T Fagbenle.
Jake: Edward Baruwa.
Serena: Dawn Hope.
Robbins: Anton Stephans.
Jim: Julian Cannonier.
Peter: Maurey Richards.
Lily: Yolanda Grant-Thompson.
Maria: Melanie E Marshall.
Porgy: Clarke Peters.
Crown: Cornell S John.
Bess: Nicola Hughes.
1st Woman: Wendy Mae Brown.
Undertaker: Ewart James Walters.
Annie: Hannah Levane.
Scipio: Josh Barry/Africa Nile/Verelle Roberts.
Nelson: Cavin Cornwall.
Crabman: Ian Carlyle.
Strawberry Woman: Ruby King.
Detective: Sam Douglas.
Mr Archdale/Coroner: Harry Ditson.
Policemen: Glenn Conroy, Stephen Lester.
Ensemble: Phillip Browne, Chris Copeland, Lewis Davies, Nolan Frederick, Sandra Marvin, Nathaniel Morrison, Terel Nugent, Ngo Omene-Ngofa, Lisa Davina Phillip, Emi Wokoma.
Swings: Josie Benson, Holly James, Leroy Ricardo Jones, Neisha-Yen Jones, A J Lewis, George Daniel Long.
Director: Trevor Nunn.
Designer: John Gunter.
Lighting: David Hersey.
Sound: Paul Groothuis.
Orchestrations: Don Sebesky.
Musical Supervisor/Adapter: Gareth Valentine.
Musical Director: David Braun-White.
Choreographer: Jason Pennycooke.
Costume: Sue Blane.
Fight director: Terry King.
2006-11-22 18:20:38