ArtsBeat Blog: For Fringe Festival Playwright, 'Porgy' Brouhaha Has a Familiar Ring

Even before Stephen Sondheim weighed in angrily on planned revisions to "Porgy and Bess," the show, its permutations and how African-Americans are depicted in theater had been on the mind of the playwright Leah Maddrie.She addresses related questions – when is a theatrical update appropriate, and who decides? – in her play, "Chasing Heaven," which is running at the New York International Fringe Festival through Aug. 26.The play follows Kinshasa Morton, <a href="http://www.cheapnorthface-outlets.com"><strong>north face outlets</strong></a> a down-on-her-luck African-American playwright, who is approached by the family foundation of Joshua Gerwitz to update his folk opera, "Chasin' Hebbin." She accepts the assignment but is confronted by the ghost of Gerwitz, who does not appreciate the idea of a rewrite. He challenges Kinshasa, asking which values are more important in our popular entertainment, authenticity or political correctness?Ms. Maddrie began work on the play almost five years ago. As an African-American, she was prompted to write <a href="http://www.uggsbootsforcheaponline.com/"><strong>ugg cheap</strong></a> by the “legacy” of the stage musical “Cabin in the Sky” and other works “that I feel don't represent us in the best light. It's our heritage simplified through someone else's eyes."Mr. Sondheim has taken issue with statements made by the creative team behind the new "Porgy and Bess” production, now titled "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," which opens this fall at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., and is scheduled to go to Broadway after that. But "I applaud the intent behind trying to reconfigure it," Ms. Maddrie said.Noting <a href="http://www.ghdstraighteners2011-cheap.com/"><strong>straighteners cheap</strong></a> the trend of rewriting classics for a more socially conscious age, Ms. Maddrie said she has been surprised at the “intensity and the focus of the controversy,” as aired on blogs and Web sites."Many works before this have been revived. ‘Annie Get Your Gun' and ‘Flower Drum Song' were revised for political correctness,” she pointed out. “At the same time, when I wrote my play, I hoped to get people to think about these issues because there is no right answer. The truth lies somewhere in the middle."