her husband. He helped her translate her dialogue into lines with what he considered a more Gullah quality. The Heywards also decided to omit a scene from the novel in which Bess, arrested during a cocaine binge, spends several days in prison for refusing to give up Sporting Life as her dealer. It was Dorothy who made one of the most signif- icant changes from novel to stage. Instead of having Bess depart for Savannah, leav- ing a heartbroken Porgy back in Charleston, Bess runs off to New York, and a determined Porgy follows after her in his goat-wagon. While Gershwin worked on his opera, Porgy the play premiered on Broadway on October 10, 1927, and ran for a successful 367 perfor- mances.


In 1932, George wrote to DuBose Heyward again, reaffirming his desire to adapt Porgy into an opera. By this point, Heyward was prepared to collaborate with Gershwin; he agreed to license the operatic rights to story. George spent the next year composing the score of Porgy and Bess.


In the meantime, Heyward began working on the libretto (the text of the opera) with George’s brother and frequent collaborator, Ira Gershwin.


Ira, a gifted lyricist, assisted Heyward in adapting his prose to be sung.


Heyward wrote the lyrics to many of Por- gy and Bess’s well-known songs, including “Summertime” and “My Man’s Gone Now.” Ira (with Heyward’s help) wrote most of the lyr- ics in the second act. The three men worked together quite well and would look back fondly on the collaboration.


Porgy and Bess premiered at Boston’s Co- lonial Theater on September 30th, 1935, to great critical acclaim. The story goes that George Gershwin and director Rouben Ma- moulian walked around Boston Common un- til three in the morning, arguing over cuts to the score. The opera was nearly four hours long—too long for Broadway audiences, ac- cording to some.


Finally, Gershwin agreed


to make substantial cuts. He delivered the cut pages from the script to Mamoulian in a gift-wrapped parcel two days before the Broadway premiere, as a birthday present. It came with a note:


“Thank you for making


me take out all that stuff in Boston.” Porgy and Bess premiered on Broadway on Octo- ber 10th, 1935.


Seventy-six years later, Porgy and Bess re- turns to Boston. DuBose and Dorothy Hey- ward, George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin’s masterpiece is as powerful as ever.


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