Catfish Row Comes to New York: The Genesis of “Porgy and Bess”

The following is a guest post by Ray White, Senior Music Specialist, Music Division.

The audience in New York’s Alvin Theatre on the night of October 10, 1935, for the premiere of “Porgy and Bess” anticipated an exceptional evening. A press release issued while the work was being written promised that it would be “something never done before.” The out-of-town opening in Boston, ten days earlier, was hailed as the season’s preeminent musical and dramatic event. The critics were enthusiastic, almost rapturous, and word quickly spread in New York.

To a large degree, the star of the evening was George Gershwin. At age thirty-seven, he was America’s most famous and successful composer. In the sixteen years since he rocketed to fame with the song “Swanee,” he had written the scores for twenty musicals for Broadway and two more for London. He had also become the first American composer to successfully bridge the gap between popular music and the concert hall with his “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Concerto in F” and “An American in Paris.” He was, in the words of biographer Edward Jablonski, a “Jazz Age meteor.”

But if that October evening belonged to George Gershwin, he was by no means solely responsible for it. The libretto for the opera was by author and poet DuBose Heyward, with additional lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Heyward’s libretto was based on his novel “Porgy” and the subsequent play of the same name. The novel’s title character was inspired by the real-life Samuel Smalls, a beggar well known in Charleston’s business district during the 1920s for his occasional run-ins with the law and for his mode of transportation, a soap-box cart pulled by a goat.

DuBose Heyward’s professional career began in the insurance business, but he soon shifted his attention to what he determined was his true vocation—writing. “Porgy,” completed in 1925, was Heyward’s first novel. It broke from the usual fictional treatments of African American characters of the era, providing, instead, a serious and sensitive portrayal of the Gullah people who lived in and around Charleston and whom Heyward had known since childhood. “Porgy” quickly become a bestseller, and Heyward was something of a celebrity.

Heyward’s wife, Dorothy, was herself a budding playwright. She became intrigued by the story of Porgy and the other denizens of Catfish Row. And she was not the only one. Cecil B. DeMille presented an offer for a moving picture. Three playwrights also inquired about the dramatic rights. And George Gershwin suggested an operatic treatment. Prompted by these inquiries, Dorothy confessed to DuBose that she had been secretly working on a dramatic adaptation of the novel. Convinced that it could be suitable material for the stage, DuBose worked with Dorothy to complete the play.

If “Porgy” the novel represented a break with tradition in its treatment of African American subjects, “Porgy” the play was an even more striking departure from the usual stage comedic or song-and-dance depictions of African Americans in the early 1920s.

The dramatized “Porgy” would be produced by the Theatre Guild. There was some difficulty, however, in finding enough skilled African American actors for the play’s large cast. One result of this was that the actors ultimately cast as Porgy and Bess were both in some respects different from the character types that Heyward had envisioned for those roles. Frank Wilson was younger and more physically fit than Heyward’s notion of Porgy, and Evelyn Ellis was younger and far more radiant than his image of Bess. So convincing were Wilson and Ellis, however, that they became the standard models for their roles.

“Porgy” opened on October 10, 1927, running for 367 performances in New York and then for several more months on the road. In the spring of 1932, George Gershwin again raised the issue of an opera with the Heywards, and in October 1933, the Heywards signed a contract with the Gershwins, and the Theatre Guild. DuBose set to work on his libretto, which he sent to George in installments beginning the following month. George spent much of 1934 working on the score, making a trip to Folly Island, South Carolina, that summer, in order to experience firsthand the language and the music of the Gullah people. In all, he would produce a handwritten short score (so called because it rendered the accompaniment in abbreviated form) of more than 400 pages, and an orchestral score of nearly 500 pages, completed on September 2, both now part of the Library’s George and Ira Gershwin Collection.

Rouben Mamoulian, who directed the 1927 play, was engaged to direct the opera. Alexander Smallens was the musical director, and the famed Eva Jesseye Choir became the opera’s chorus. In the title roles, baritone Todd Duncan, then on the faculty at Howard University, and soprano Anne Wiggins Brown, a student at the Juilliard Graduate School, headed a superbly trained cast.

Part of the excitement surrounding the premiere was the uncertainty as to precisely what would be presented. George described “Porgy and Bess” as a “folk opera,” a term certainly open to interpretation (Gershwin explained that the opera was based on folk characters and folk themes.) Gershwin was also not known as an opera composer, and the work was to be presented in a Broadway theater—not in an opera house. Further, a theatrical presentation of aspects of African American culture by an all-Black cast was still not a usual occurrence, and a serious opera of major proportions with an all-Black cast was almost unprecedented.

The performance was greeted with tumultuous applause. Nevertheless, the notion persists to this day, in some quarters at least, that “Porgy and Bess” was initially a commercial failure. The opera played for 124 performances—a moderate run for a Broadway musical of the 1930s—although a spectacular achievement for an opera. But with its large cast and orchestra, it was a very expensive show to present, and the  production failed to recoup its initial investment of $70,000.

Evidence of the artistic merits of the opera and its original production is found in the many reviews that it generated. Many drama critics particularly admired the production; reviews praised it as colorful, well-sung, well-acted, and very poignant; many considered it Gershwin’s finest achievement. However, Virgil Thomson famously described the show as “crooked folklore and half-way opera.” Most music critics, like their drama desk counterparts, praised the production highly. Reaction from African Americans was somewhat mixed—on various grounds. One frequent comment was that the music wasn’t sufficiently authentic to African American traditions. However, J. Rosamond Johnson disagreed, saying that the opera’s “musical influence will live through the ages.”

That, however, was not the last word. Within a few years the opera was performed with great success in the United States and later, internationally. In recent decades, “Porgy and Bess” has become acknowledged as a towering artistic achievement, and it now occupies a position in the canon of operas performed regularly in opera houses around the world.

When the final curtain fell on the New York production on January 25, 1936, George Gershwin remained confident that his opera would live on. History has proven that he was right.

“Here to Stay: The Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin” is a special exhibition at the Library of Congress that showcases original items from the George and Ira Gershwin Collection, including a section on the history of “Porgy and Bess.” Visit Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Timed-entry passes required.

The Library of Congress and Washington National Opera presented a 90th anniversary celebration of “Porgy and Bess” on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. in the Coolidge Auditorium. A short performance by soprano Alyson Cambridge and baritone Reginald Smith Jr. was followed by a panel discussion. Cambridge and Smith appear in the lead roles of the Francesca Zambello production of “Porgy and Bess” that the Washington National Opera presents May 23-31, 2025, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A video of the event will be posted at loc.gov/webcasts in the coming weeks.