BWW Flashback: Looking Back At PORGY AND BESS's Opening Night!

By: Jan. 21, 2020
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With David Alan Grier making his official return to Broadway tonight as Sergeant Vernon C. Waters in Roundabout Theatre Company's A Soldier's Play, we're looking back at his Tony-nominated turn as Sportin' Life in 2012's production of The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess on the show's opening night. Check out the video to see Grier alongside Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, Phillip Boykin, Joshua Henry, and more as they celebrate the special night!

David Alan Grier is a three-time Tony nominee for his performances in Porgy and Bess, The First, and Race. He has also appeared on Broadway in Dreamgirls. He also appeared in NBC's The Wiz Live and FOX's A Christmas Story Live. His film credits include A Soldier's Story, Robert Altman's Streamers, Dance Flick, and We the Peeples. He received an Emmy Award for his role in television's In Living Color. His other television credits include DAG, Life with Bonnie, and Chocolate News. Grier has been named one of Comedy Central's "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time." He also published his book Barack Like Me: The Chocolate Covered Truth. He holds an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.

Porgy and Bess starred Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis and David Alan Grier, Phillip Boykin, Nikki Renée Daniels, Joshua Henry, Christopher Innvar, Bryonha Marie Parham, and NaTasha Yvette Williams. Also appearing in the production's original cast were Allison Blackwell, Roosevelt André Credit, Trevon Davis, Joseph Dellger, Wilkie Ferguson, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Heather Hill, David Hughey, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Alicia Hall Moran, Cedric Neal, Phumzile Sojola, Nathaniel Stampley, Julius Thomas III, J.D. Webster and Lisa Nicole Wilkerson.

The classic story by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward is set in Charleston's fabled Catfish Row, where the beautiful Bess struggles to break free from her scandalous past, and the only one who can rescue her is the crippled but courageous Porgy. Threatened by her formidable former lover Crown, and the seductive enticements of the colorful troublemaker Sporting Life, Porgy and Bess' relationship evolves into a deep romance that triumphs as one of theater's most exhilarating love stories.


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