Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis (Photo:Michael J. Lutch)

For starters there's Audra McDonald who is undoubtedly the magnet for ticket sales. Even those quibbling about some of Paulus and company's choices, will find hers a Bess for the ages. In addition to a dulcet toned voice and flawless technique, she's an actress able to channel her vocal gifts into a power house portrayal of a woman whose immoral sex life and indulgence in liquor and drugs have won her the disapproval of the religious Catfish Row community. McDonald's Bess comes on tough and sexy in a flashy red dress, but demonstrates a woman yearning to discover another side of herself and overjoyed when she does with the gentle Porgy. Even Bess's succumbing to the lover Crown's reappearance (Phillip Boykin, an opera trained performer who adds mightily to the show's assets) at the end of a picnic scene on Kittiwah Island is not so much in conflict with her gradual moral turnaround but heightens the image of Bess as victim of circumstance struggling to tap into her yearning for love and goodness. It's the psychological nuances McDonald brings to Bess as much as her gorgeous singing that will garner any number of awards for her.

While McDonald is the star attraction, Norm Lewis’ Porgy is no second banana. I see no cause for g rumbling about the cane with which he now drags himself around the stage instead of a goat cart. Lewis's pain is no less heartbreaking when illustrated with a cane to support a horribly twisted foot and the desperation with which he looks for the leg brace and cane tossed out of his reach after an interrogation by Christopher Innvar's brutal white detective (Innvar and Joseph Deliger are the only white characters). Lewis brings great warmth and and sweetness to a wonderful rendition of the catch I've Got Plenty of Nothing. And there's no shortage of chemistry betweenn him and McDonald —, most movingly so in their incredibly beautiful "Bess You Are My Woman Now." As for the ambiguously hopeful concluding solo, " I'm On My Way Now," bring tissues!

Don't expect a realistic recreation of the shantytown setting, or any Broadway-ish sliding and gliding set changes. But while Riccardo Hernandez's abstract set may not be an eye-popper, it beautifully highlights the vivid stage pictures created by the ensemble's representation of a community as well as the solos and duets as well as Christopher Akerlind's superb lighting which includes a vividly scary hurricane scene.

Award worthy performances are also delivered by Phillip Boykin, who has the physique for the overpowering Crown and an opera-trained voice. . .David Alan Grier as the seductive Beau Brummel drug dealer Sporting Life whose "It Ain't Necessarily So" with the ensemble gets the second act off to an amusing start. . . Nikki Renee Daniels and Joshua Henry also make a strong contribution as the doomed fisherman Jake and his wife Clara ("Summertime" sung to their baby makes for an immediately enthralling opening).

Rounding out the factors contributing to th3 overall effectiveness of this production is Ronald K. Brown's choreography with its African roots, ESosa's apt costumes and Acme Sound Partners sound design.