Thank God for theater purists. A new revival of Porgy and Bess might have become just another overpriced Broadway ticket if it hadn't been for Stephen Sondheim. After the show's creators talked to the New York Times about trying to fix the opera's dramatic flaws and "flesh out" its characters, Sondheim shot off an angry letter to the editor. Presuming to improve the great George Gershwin--DuBose Heyward folk opera? A mix of arrogance and "willful ignorance," Sondheim snarled.
The upshot: the new Porgy and Bess (now at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., with a Broadway opening set for January)...