Porgy And Bess is a musical written by two Jewish men about the experiences of a group of poor black people watched predominantly by wealthy white people in London’s Savoy Theatre. If, however, you can get your head around this bunch of cultural paradoxes it’s quite a good show.
The story focuses on a cripple called Porgy who takes in a bad girl Bess after her bad boy boyfriend kills and has to go on the run. While living with Porgy, Bess finds redemption for her former corrupt lifestyle – until her murderer fella comes back and is killed by Porgy.
Then Bess runs off to New York alongside the local drug dealer with Porgy determined to follow her and save her. Again.
As a slickly packaged evening of musical theatre it’s a good show and the performances were impressive, particularly as the night myself and the Missus saw it three of the main leads were played by understudies.
It's a Trevor Nunn production so it's cleverly staged and beautifully paced and I learnt three important lessons from it:
i) Poor black people always get the shit end of the stick in America. Folk from New Orleans take note in case you didn't already know this.
ii) Bad boys are far more attractive than well-meaning do-gooders. My wife has been told to ignore this lesson.
iii) Never trust women.
I still quite liked it, though.
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