Musical Essay Discussion

Using cast albums, reviews, photographs, and other documentary evidence, explore how the musical, ‘Porgy and Bess’ has been changed over time, in terms of either its performance practice, musical arrangement, or reception. This musical has been made into films, but focus on it’s stage iterations. Sources could include Spotify and YouTube for audio and visual material, the Internet Broadway Database and Playbill Vault for data, the New York Times and other newspapers for reviews and advertisements, and the Library of Congress, Museum of the City of New York, and New York Public Library digital collections for images.