ABSTRACT
An adaptation of an adaptation, the landmark show drew its central characters and plotting from Heyward’s 1925 best-selling novel Porgy, which his wife, Dorothy, remade into a successful Broadway play in 1927. The inspiration for the novel came from an article the Charleston, South Carolina-born writer reportedly came across in the newspaper detailing the legal woes of Samuel Smalls, a disabled Black man who had become notorious for the goat and cart he used to get around the city. The coverage of the production in Black newspapers was often far more skeptical. Indeed, as historian Ellen Noonan highlights in her book The Strange Career of Porgy and Bess, Black critics were much more attuned to and concerned about the racial dynamics and implications of the work, especially its creators’ appeals to ideas of racial authenticity. Porgy and Bess’ creators were certainly aware of the entertainment industry’s proclivities for producing Black performance without Black people.
