Old Musical in Manhattan

Porgy and Bess (by DuBose Heyward; music by George Gershwin; produced by Cheryl Crawford) seemed better last week than when first produced in 1935. With most of its dull, draggy recitative deleted, Gershwin's folk opera of Charleston's swarming "Catfish Row" came warmly to life.

Musically Porgy and Bess is least good when most operatic. The top songs in Porgy and Bess--Summer Time, I Got Plenty o' Nuttin', A Woman Is a Sometime Thing, It Ain't Necessarily So, the duet Bess, You Is My Woman Now--flash out like perfect stones in too heavy a setting.

Playing the title roles they made famous in 1935, Todd Duncan and Anne Brown acted capably, sang delightfully. Best new comer: Avon Long, who, as the dope peddler Sportin' Life, darted and capered with salamander-like skill.

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