Twitter Watch: Audra McDonald- 'Art isn't easy'

By: Aug. 11, 2011
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BroadwayWorld.com presents Twitter Watch, which brings you only the best and most interesting reports straight from the mouths of Broadway stars, shows and more on the hot social networking service - Twitter!

On Twitter, Audra McDonald had this to say in response to the new controversy surrounding PORGY AND BESS and the critique of Stephen Sondheim @AudraEqualityMc

Here's what I think...to quote the greatest musical theater composer of our time... "Art isn't easy"

THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin has been re-imagined by A.R.T.'s Artistic Director Diane Paulus, Pulitzer prize-winning writer Suzan-Lori Parks, and two-time Obie winner Diedre Murray, and is heading to Broadway in December. In response to a recent article in the New York Times that explained director Diane Paulus' new vision for the production, theatre legend Stehen Sondheim wrote in to share his thoughts.

Sondheim wrote: "The article by Mr. Healy about the coming revival of 'Porgy and Bess' is dismaying on many levels. To begin with, the title of the show is now 'The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess.' I assume that's in case anyone was worried it was the Rodgers and Hart "Porgy and Bess" that was coming to town. But what happened to DuBose Heyward? Most of the lyrics (and all of the good ones) are his alone ("Summertime," "My Man's Gone Now") or co-written with Ira Gershwin ("Bess, You Is My Woman Now"). If this billing is at the insistence of the Gershwin estate, they should be ashamed of themselves. If it's the producers' idea, it's just dumb."

To read Sondheim's full letter, click here.

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