Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess comes to Eisenhower Auditorium Feb. 26
February 4, 2005
Before Jean Valjean took up singing, before cats scampered onto the stage, even before the Jets and the Sharks fought on the streets of New York City's West Side, there was Porgy who fell in love with Bess. Their story, told through a compelling merger of Broadway and opera, debuted in 1935. Seventy years later, The Gershwins'® Porgy and Bess—still brimming with passion and pathos—appears at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26, in Eisenhower Auditorium on the Penn State University Park campus.
Section one and two tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are on sale now at $39 and $33 for an adult; $26 and $20 for a University Park student; and $34 and $28 for a person 18 years and younger. For tickets and information, log on to www.cpa.psu.edu or phone 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at Eisenhower Auditorium, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; Penn State Tickets Downtown in the lobby of State College's Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays; and Bryce Jordan Center, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Porgy and Bess is based on a DuBose Heyward novel about a physically challenged man, Porgy, who witnesses a murder during a dice game. He creates controversy in Catfish Row, a Charleston, South Carolina, waterfront community, when he becomes romantically involved with Bess, a woman hiding from her murderous man friend.
The couple lives in peace and adopts a child orphaned in a hurricane. Their happiness is cut short, though, and so goes a story of pride, prejudice and passion with a score only George and Ira Gershwin could create. The musical's classic songs include Summertime, I Got Plenty o' Nuttin‚ and It Ain't Necessarily So.
Since 1992, Living Arts, Inc., has performed The Gershwins'® Porgy and Bess to standing ovations and international acclaim in more than 400 cities on five continents. The cast boasts members from leading opera companies in the United States accompanied by a 14-piece orchestra.
Waypoint Bank sponsors the performance. WTAJ-TV 10 is the media partner. Lite 94.5 is the media sponsor. Artistic Viewpoints, sponsored by the Center for the Performing Arts Community Advisory Council, provides insight from an artist or expert perspective and is offered free to interested ticket holders in the Eisenhower Auditorium Conference Room one hour before the performance. Free audio description, which is especially helpful to patrons with sight loss, is available at no charge to ticket holders.
Contact: Linda Sullivan 814-863-6379