In his 1940 memoir, A Smattering of Ignorance, composer-raconteur-pharmaceuticals enthusiast Oscar Levant recalls a train journey he took with his idol, George Gershwin. After offering the talkative Gershwin a sleeping pill (“with the air of a man offering a friend an after-dinner mint”), Levant was mildly surprised that Gershwin commandeered the more comfortable lower berth […]
Tag: George Gershwin
Posted inArts & Culture
An American in Paris works best when it faces the music
It’s Gershwin for the win in Drury Lane’s production.
Posted inCity Life
Mike Lust’s den of vintage toys
Phantom Manor engineer Mike Lust fills his Logan Square abode with 80s nostalgia
Posted inArts & Culture
At Court Theatre, it’s Porgy and Bess in Neverland
“The times are here to debunk Gershwin’s lampblack Negroisms,” said Duke Ellington after the 1935 Broadway premiere of Porgy and Bess. Written by a quartet of white people—George and Ira Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Hayward—and stuffed with cringe-worthy stereotypes of black ghetto life, the opera focuses on Porgy, a crippled beggar who’s content with “plenty […]