On October 10, 1935, Porgy and Bess opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre. Now considered a standard of opera and musical theatre repertoires around the country for its soaring melodies and heartfelt portrayal of Black life, the original production of Porgy and Bess wasn't initially considered successful—it only ran for four months.

George Gershwin was first inspired to write the "folk opera" in 1926, when he first picked up DuBose Heyward's novella Porgy, about the denizens of a poor Black community in Charleston, South Carolina, where Heyward was born. Staying up all night to read it, Gershwin was inspired by Heyward's lyrical prose. The composer reached out to the novelist, asking if he would collaborate on an opera. But Heyward, while receptive, was hesitant; he and his wife Dorothy Heyward were already adapting Porgy into a play, which premiered at the Guild Theater in New York in 1927 (and ran for two years).  

In 1932, Gershwin reached out again to Heyward, writing: “[I]n thinking of ideas for new compositions, I came back to one that I had several years ago—namely Porgy—and the thought of setting it to music. It is still the most outstanding play that I know about the colored people.” 

Heyward agreed, and the two began their collaboration—with Gershwin even traveling down to Charleston to write, where he was inspired by the James Island Gullah community and their music. Black spirituals, blues, and jazz were incorporated into the score of Porgy and Bess. Heyward wrote the libretto and co-wrote the lyrics with Ira Gershwin; the now iconic "Summertime" is attributed chiefly to Heyward.

Porgy and Bess was revolutionary at the time for its combination of Black folk songs with the previously white European operatic tradition, along with its casting. Gershwin insisted that (despite Blackface being prevalent at the time), the Black characters be played by Black actors. Though Shuffle Along in 1921 had an all-Black cast, that was still rare (especially in opera during a time when the Metropolitan Opera didn't even allow Black singers in its company). After a tryout in Boston in September 1935, where the show was four hours long, it was cut down for Broadway. In that original production, the impoverished Porgy was played by Todd Duncan, and his paramour Bess was played by Anne Brown (who had been the first Black student to attend Juilliard).

Unfortunately, the show received a mixed reception—white critics were not impressed with the music, while Black artists saw the work's depiction of its characters as stereotypical. George Gershwin passed in 1937, while Heyward died in 1940—neither saw their opera become a classic.

But Porgy and Bess persevered. It went on tour, and had another Broadway revival in 1942 (even though subsequent productions did cut out much of Gershwin's score in order to turn it into a more traditional musical theatre piece). There was even a European tour in 1952 financed by the United States Department of State (that starred Cab Calloway and a young Maya Angelo), which also went to the Middle East and Latin America. It wasn't until 1976 when Gershwin's full score was performed again, by Houston Grand Opera, which then went to Broadway, winning a Tony Award for Best Revival and a Grammy Award.

Overall, Porgy and Bess has been performed on Broadway eight times (the most recent revival in 2011 starred Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald). A number of those productions, including the 2011 one, turned the sung recitative into spoken dialogue—to better fit musical theatre sensibilities. But what has always remained are the songs, with "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Loves You, Porgy," and many others becoming popular across the genres of opera, musical theatre, and jazz.

The Metropolitan Opera has performed Porgy and Bess multiple times. The production from Tony-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown runs December 2–January 24.

And though he never lived to see it, Porgy and Bess proved that the lives of the most marginalized in our society were worthy of depiction, especially in the highest art forms. As Gershwin wrote in the New York Times in 1935: "However, because 'Porgy and Bess' deals with Negro life in America it brings to the operatic form elements that have never before appeared in opera and I have adapted my method to utilize the drama, the humor, the superstition, the religious fervor, the dancing and the irrepressible high spirits of the race."

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Photos: Look Back on Porgy and Bess

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