{"id":3061,"date":"2024-05-12T23:23:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T03:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3061"},"modified":"2024-05-12T23:23:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T03:23:47","slug":"a-new-biography-ponders-the-controversial-director-of-porgy-and-bess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2024\/05\/a-new-biography-ponders-the-controversial-director-of-porgy-and-bess.html","title":{"rendered":"A New Biography Ponders the Controversial Director of “Porgy and Bess”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0My\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0review<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of Kurt Jensen\u2019s new Rouben Mamoulian biography takes stock of a unique near-genius, perhaps the least known and appreciated American theater and film director of consequence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came to Mamoulian (1897-1987) while writing my book on immigrants in the performing arts:\u00a0Artists in Exile<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0The juxtaposed magnitude of his successes and failures confounded comprehension. Because Mamoulian was chronically meddlesome, it became obvious to me that more could be learned about his role in directing the premiere of\u00a0Porgy and Bess<\/em>\u00a0on Broadway in 1935.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Library of Congress finished cataloguing its vast Mamoulian Archive in 2007, I felt certain to find a smoking gun. And I did, almost immediately. It was the working script for the precursor to Gershwin\u2019s opera: the Dorothy and DuBose Heyward play\u00a0Porgy<\/em>, directed by Mamoulian in 1927. All published versions of that script, I realized, omitted Mamoulian\u2019s crucial changes. The outcome of my discovery was a book: “On My Way”:<\/a> The Untold Story of Rouben Mamoulian, George Gershwin, and “Porgy and Bess.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those changes was the ending, where Porgy picks himself up and exclaims \u201cBring my goat!\u201d It was entirely Mamoulian\u2019s. In effect, Mamoulian rewrote the character Porgy to make him an agent of redemption. (The Heywards\u2019 Porgy sinks into obscurity.) Many blogs in this space have pondered the ramifications of this discovery \u2013 on how to understand\u00a0Porgy and Bess<\/em>; on\u00a0how to (and not to) perform it<\/a><\/strong>. As I write in my review of the new Jensen biography: \u201cWe wind up with a different Porgy altogether: he\u2019s become the moral compass of the community. And so he remains in Gershwin\u2019s opera. In fact, Mamoulian wrote the words for the ending of play and opera both. Though the Gershwin Estate insists that\u00a0Porgy<\/em>\u00a0and Bess<\/em>\u00a0be billed as \u2018the Gershwins\u2019,\u2019 Ira Gershwin shared the lyrics with DuBose Heyward. And Rouben Mamoulian was no mere director.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also write: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMr. Jensen\u2019s biography is to date the fullest account of his life and career. He has assiduously scoured the sources at hand. He has scrutinized the self-serving reminiscences Mamoulian recorded and re-recorded in retirement. He has amassed a trove of anecdotes deftly told and judgments reasonably rendered. He calls Mamoulian \u2018a loner who constructed a sturdy veneer of imperturbable sangfroid,\u2019 a man \u2018mostly hidden, occasionally revealing himself in bitter recollections of being pushed aside in Hollywood.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bitterest of Mamoulian\u2019s recollections were of Sam Goldwyn, who crudely removed him from the 1959 film version of Porgy and Bess<\/em> in favor of Otto Preminger. Mamoulian\u2019s elaborate Catfish Row set and detailed script revisions were mis-utilized; he deserved to have masterminded this abandoned labor of love. Then came Cleopatra<\/em> (1963), whose producer, Walter Wanger, blamed Mamoulian for a series of legendary delays. Mr. Jensen, however, blames bad weather complicated by the moodiness and ill health of Elizabeth Taylor. Mamoulian was ousted and never directed for Hollywood again. Mr. Jensen\u2019s detailed accounts of these twin debacles make painful reading. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Rochester [where he directed at the Eastman Theatre], Mamoulian had registered as a precocious genius. Somehow his genius dissipated in the decades to come. What happened? Was he corrupted by Hollywood banality and glamour? Was he the victim of a socialite spouse who succumbed to alcohol and dementia? Mr. Jensen is the right person to ask \u2013 and he supplies plenty of possible answers without volunteering finished verdicts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother question: how would a Mamoulian production play today? In\u00a0Peerless<\/em>, we can revisit his once famous rhythmic staging of \u2018I got plenty o\u2019 nuttin\u2019,\u2019 with its soap bubbles, rug-beating, shoe hammering, and knife sharpening — not to mention vacant rocking chairs controlled by invisible threads. Startling in 1935, this rendering \u2013 memorably compared by Mr. Jensen to \u2018the casual syncopation of a Disney cartoon\u2019 — would nowadays likely seem artifice run amok. Mamoulian\u2019s most tangible legacy was the integrated musical \u2013 an art in which he tutored Richard Rodgers, whom he instructed to write both songs and an abundance of incidental music for\u00a0\u00a0[the subversive 1932 film musical] \u201cLove Me Tonight<\/em>.\u201d But when\u00a0Oklahoma<\/em>! and\u00a0Carousel<\/em>\u00a0came along, Rodgers, Hammerstein, and Agnes de Mille got all the credit for using music and dance as dramatic engines. And Rouben Mamoulian, who always kept score, more than knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0My\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0review\u00a0of Kurt Jensen\u2019s new Rouben Mamoulian biography takes stock of a unique near-genius, perhaps the least known and appreciated American theater and film director of consequence.\u00a0\u00a0 I came to Mamoulian (1897-1987) while writing my book on immigrants in the performing arts:\u00a0Artists in Exile.\u00a0The juxtaposed magnitude of his successes and failures confounded comprehension. Because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Nn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3064,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions\/3064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}