Porgy - Play

Play

DuBose Heyward's wife, Dorothy Heyward, began working on a staged adaptation of her husband's novel soon after it was published in 1925. Some elements of the storyline in the play differ considerably from those in the novel. George and Ira Gershwin, along with DuBose Heyward, based the libretto of their opera version, Porgy and Bess, not on the original novel, but on the play. (In the novel, after Bess leaves with "Sportin' Life" and goes to New York, Porgy merely returns from jail, disillusioned, to being a beggar. At the end of both the play and the opera, he begins a journey to New York, hoping to find her.)

Porgy opened on Broadway at the Guild Theatre (today's August Wilson Theatre) on October 10, 1927, and ran for 367 performances. It was directed by Rouben Mamoulian. In 1928, Bibo, Bloedon & Lang, Inc. (New York) secured the international copyright for 11 "Spiritual Songs" arranged and edited by George Shackley. These can be found in a "Souvenir Edition" published by Bibo-Lang, Inc. Music Publishers, 1595 Broadway, NY. They are from The Theatre Guild Production Porgy a folk play by Dubose and Dorothy Heyward. Included on the cover is art work by Simonson.

A 1929 revival was less successful, opening on September 13, 1929, and closing one month later after only 34 performances at the Martin Beck Theatre (today's Al Hirschfeld Theatre).