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Complete Cast Set for The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess in London

Clarke Peters

Complete casting has been announced forThe Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, a new adaptation of Porgy and Bess, written and directed by Tony Award winner Trevor Nunn. The show, which is based on the original opera with music by George Gershwin and libretto and lyrics by DuBose & Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin, will begin performances at London's Savoy Theatre on October 25 and open officially on November 9.

Clarke Peters and Nicola Hughes will play the title roles. The supporting cast includes Cornell John as Crown, O-T Fagbenle as Sporting Life, Dawn Hope as Serena, and Melanie Marshall as Maria, along with Lorraine Velez, Edward Baruwa, Des Coleman, Sam Douglas, Harry Ditson, Maurey Richards, Wendy Mae Brown, Julian Cannonier, Ian Carlyle, Cavin Cornwall, Ruby King, Hannah Levane, Yolanda Grant-Thompson, Anton Stephans, Ewart James Walters, Josie Benson, Phillip Browne, Glenn Conroy, Chris Copeland, Lewis Davies, Nolan Frederick, Paul Isles, Holly James, Leroy Ricardo Jones, Stephen Lester, A.J. Lewis, George Daniel Long, Sandra Marvin, Nathaniel Morrison, Terel Nugent, Ngo Omene-Ngofa, Lisa Davina Phillip, and Emi Wokoma.

Peters has starred in many Broadway and West End musicals and plays including Five Guys Named Mo, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Iceman Cometh, and Driving Miss Daisy. Hughes has starred on the West End stage in Fosse, Damn Yankees and Tommy, and the pair co-starred together in the musicals Chicago and Simply Heavenly in London.

The score for Porgy and Bess, which features such classics as "Summertime," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "There's a Boat That's Leavin' Soon for New York," has been specially adapted by Gareth Valentine.

Based on the play Porgy, by DuBose & Dorothy Heyward, Porgy and Bess had its world premiere at Broadway's Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon) in 1935. That production ran for only 124 performances, but the work has since had five Broadway revivals and countless productions in theaters and opera houses throughout the world. There are also two film versions of Porgy and Bess: a 1959 Hollywood movie starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge (whose singing voices were respectively dubbed by Robert McFerrin and Adele Addison), and a 1993 version directed by Nunn, based on his production of the opera at the Glyndebourne Festival.

 

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