Gershwins’ “Porgy and Bess” heats up the Detroit Opera House with “Summertime” and more

By SUE SUCHYTA

             It may be cold outside, but the national touring company of “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” heats up the Detroit Opera House now through March 9 with a red hot love story and heart-warming favorites like “Summertime,” “I Got Plenty of Nothing,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”

            The Broadway tour is the winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, and features a 23-piece orchestra.

            Do not be frozen with indecision, though: it will only be in town through Sunday, March 9, so bask in it while you can. Shows through Saturday are at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday matinees and a 7:30 p.m. Sunday performance.

            Tickets range from $29 to $87, and are available through Ticketmaster, by phone at 1-800-982-2787, online at www.ticketmaster.com or www.broadwayindetroit.com, and at the Fisher Theatre and Detroit Opera House box offices.

                The tour features Broadway cast members Nathaniel Stampley as Porgy, Alicia Hall Moran as Bess, Alvin Crawfordd as Crown, Kingsley Leggs as Sporting Life, Sumayya Ali as Clara, Denisha Ballew as Serena and Danielle Lee Greaves as Mariah.

Set in the late 1930s in Charleston, South Carolina on Catfish Row, Bess, a fast living woman, desperately seeks a protector when her lover, Crown, kills a man and flees the law. Porgy, a man disabled since birth, takes her into her home, and heart – and Bess feels cherished and loved for the first time in her life. Even the tight-knit community begins to accept her.

However, Crown, who has been in hiding, abducts Bess after an island picnic and forces himself on her. She struggles back to Porgy, and together they fight off Crown, which lands Porgy under the scrutiny of the local authorities.

Meanwhile, con artist and drug dealer Sporting Life messes with Bess’ mind to get her to return to New York with him, tempting her with the drugs she had tried to so hard to quit.

The pureness of Porgy’s devotion to Bess and his abiding faith in her is at the core of one of Broadway’s most romantic and exhilarating love stories.

The story is almost entirely sung, and has the joyousness of American song classics – from “Summertime,” which will send a chill down your spine, to the entertaining and energetic “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”

Whether sung in solo or by the ensemble, the music will stir you and capture your attention as the story’s joys and sorrows unwind like a treasured skein of yarn, its path unpredictable.

The dancing is energetic, original and whole-heartedly embraced. The supporting cast effectively becomes a small village on Catfish row, capturing its quick and slow paces and its solidarity.

            For more information, go to www.broadwayindetroit.com or www.porgyandbessthemusical.com.