Stephen Sondheim may hate it, but TIME’s Richard Zoglin can’t get enough of a new revival of Porgy and Bess.
In the latest issue of TIME, Zoglin takes a look at a new spin on the opera, which is currently showing in Massachusetts but will hit Broadway this winter. Sondheim, and some other critics, decried the new show for taking liberties with characters and adding dialogue. But Zoglin argues these changes help the non-snobs understand the story, writing:
“It’s accessible—a Porgy for purists and for the rest of us too…This Porgy is faithful to what counts most—[George] Gershwin’s lush, bluesy, irreplaceable score. That makes it a revival not to hound but to hail.”