A CENTURY OF CREATIVITY
THE MACDOWELL COLONY 1907-2007

  • DUBOSE and DOROTHY HEYWARD
    Featured Objects

  • Manuscript of 'Porgy'
  • 'Respite: to the MacDowell Colony'
  • Photograph of Porgy & Bess production

PORGY AND BESS

Photograph of Porgy & Bess production or Dubose and Dorothy Heyward

enlarge imagePorgy and Bess
Production shot from Porgy and Bess, 1935.  Copyprint.  Rouben Mamoulian Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Bequest of Azadia Mamoulian
Digital ID # mc0088

Porgy and Bess

George Gershwin read DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy in 1926, and immediately wrote to him about collaborating on a musical version.  The result became an American classic, Porgy and Bess. Shown here is a photo from the original 1935 production, directed by Rouben Mamoulian.  DuBose Heyward’s lyrics for Porgy and Bess, that include both "Summertime" and "My Man’s Gone Now," have been called "the best lyrics in the musical theater" by composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

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