Audra McDonald to star in 'Porgy and Bess'

[June 30, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis and David Alan Grier are slated to star in a revamped version of the Gershwin classic "Porgy and Bess" on Broadway.

Producers announced Wednesday that the show will begin previews on Dec. 17 at The Richard Rodgers Theatre and officially open on Jan. 12 following a pre-Broadway run at the American Repertory Theatre.

Originally an opera, it has been reimagined by A.R.T.'s artistic director, Diane Paulus, and features a reworked book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and new arrangements by Diedre Murray.

The musical looks at life in the fictitious Catfish Row in the early 1920s. It boasts such songs as "Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "I Got Plenty o' Nothin'" and "It Ain't Necessarily So."

[Associated Press]

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