January 31, 2012
David Alan Grier has a gentle message for anyone who is getting all hot and bothered thinking that he's helping ruin an American masterpiece.
"Relax. Let it go," he says. "We're not killing it. We're just doing our version."
The actor and comedian is currently starring as Sporting Life in a reworked version of the Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" on Broadway following a controversial out-of-town tryout this fall near Boston.
The creative team, with the blessing of the creators' estates, condensed the four-hour opera into a two-and-one-half-hour musical, eliminated a lot of the repetitiveness and tried to deepen the characters. Their effort generated headlines when purists including Stephen Sondheim complained that a musical treasure was being corrupted.
"We just want people to be propelled by the story and the music," Grier says. "It's not like we made a deal with the estate to destroy all previous versions and burn down all the opera houses. They will continue to do it and it will continue to live and be interpreted. That's what keeps classical works like this alive."
It's the fifth time on Broadway for this Yale School of Drama graduate best known for his scathing wit and his four seasons aboard the groundbreaking sketch comedy TV show "In Living Color."
The 55-year-old didn't expect to return to Broadway so soon after appearing in David Mamet's "Race" in 2010, but he had never been in "Porgy and Bess" and thought the new version was going to be "historic."
He emailed the American Repertory Theater's Diane Paulus, who was directing the adaptation by Suzan-Lori Parks and Deidre L. Murray. Grier, who knew Paulus from a workshop of her "Best of Both Worlds," wanted to play Sporting Life, the drug-pusher and pimp portrayed in the original Broadway production by Cab Calloway and in the film version by Sammy Davis Jr.
Grier impressed the team by holding his own alongside lead actors Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, and singing two songs: the funny, upbeat "It Ain't Necessarily So" and the teasing, seductive "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon."
"I would sit in the back the theater with my musical director and my choreographer. He'd start singing and we'd all look at each other and our jaws would drop. It's a performance that's blossomed," says Paulus.
"He's been the most incredible company member for this show. He's cracked a joke at every perfect and imperfect moment and made us all laugh. He's a famous name and yet he's right there in the trenches with everyone like the way Audra and Norm are."
To get into character, Grier learned all he could about the 1930s in South Carolina, went back to the original notes left by the show's creators, listened to Ella Fitzgerald scat and watched documentaries of pimps. He also drew on his roots growing up in Detroit and watching pimps decked out in colorful clothes stroll down 12th Street.
"It was like an urban ballet," he says.
The controversy over the show didn't scare him off: It made him even more excited. The show moved over the winter from the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass, to Broadway's Richard Rogers Theatre, opening in January to generally positive reviews.
"I don't want to be in a production that everyone says, 'Did you open? Did you close? Oh, I didn't see it. Good thing you did it just the way it's always been done,'" Grier says. "No, I want to be in a production that's exciting and gets people talking."
Grier laughs that when "Porgy and Bess" first opened in 1935, opera buffs were incensed by what some considered a crass monstrosity: George Gershwin wasn't considered a bona fide opera writer, the show's melting of jazz and blues into a classical European art form was highly unusual, and few thought black singers could fully succeed at singing opera. Over the years, though, it became an opera masterpiece.
"So when we open, now there are all these opera purists who say, 'Oh no, it's nothing BUT grand opera. You have to do it ONLY the way grand opera must be done,'" he says. "The exciting thing is everyone feels they own it."
Grier, who lives in Los Angeles, has found time to see as much Broadway as he can, including "Venus in Fur" and "Jerusalem." At "Follies," he was happy to see other people dance. "It was so great to sit in the audience and not be performing," he says, laughing. "I was going, 'Wow, that was a big number! I bet they're tired now.'"
As for reviews, he doesn't sweat them. He recalls the reaction his Broadway debut got in 1981 when he played Jackie Robinson in "The First." One reviewer said Grier was perfect in the role. Another said he was terrible.
"So I had them framed right next to each other on my wall and above my bed because that sums it up — one terrible, one perfect," he says. "My shoulders are broad. This is the career I've chosen. You are judged publicly."
January 27, 2012
My main experience with Porgy and Bess has been listening to the Miles Davis album. I first came across it soon after discovering Miles early in high school and like many of his albums, I can pick it up after years absence and hear something new.
Being so familiar with one interpretation of Gershwin's groundbreaking score, I suppose it's fitting then that my first performance of the show be another adaptation. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding Suzan-Lori Parks' adaptation and Diane Paulus' direction, so I was surprised that there was nothing too radical about the production.
It's solid, if a little sleepy in parts. The score is heart breaking, and Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis deliver as they usually do. Together, they have a heartbreaking chemistry. David Alan Grier as the hustler Sporting Life, though, just about steals the show, exuding charm in his every move. He can carry a note too.
Source: Huffington Post
January 20, 2012
Broadway.com’s resident artist Justin ‘Squigs’ Robertson recently took a trip to the Richard Rodgers Theatre to meet Porgy, Bess, and the close community of Catfish Row. In this heart-wrenching portrait of the new Broadway production of Porgy and Bess, Squigs captures the passionate love of the cripple Porgy (Norm Lewis) and his woman Bess (Audra McDonald) and the world that keeps them apart. Also featured in this powerful artwork are co-stars David Alan Grier (with his “happy dust”), Phillip Boykin as the dangerous Crown and (from left) Bryonha Marie Parham, Joshua Henry, Nikki Renee Daniels and NaTasha Yvette Williams. See how these actors come together to create a tragic love story by getting tickets to Porgy and Bess.
About the Artist: With a desire to celebrate the magic of live theater and those who create it, and with a deep reverence for such touchstones as the work of Al Hirschfeld and the wall at Sardi’s, Squigs is happy and grateful to be among those carrying on the traditions where theater and caricature meet. He was born and raised in Oregon, lived in Los Angeles for quite a long time and now calls New York City his home.
Source: Broadway.com
January 17, 2012
The "Porgy & Bess" now on Broadway wasn't remade - as critics had feared - but slightly changed, for the better.
The immensely satisfying Porgy and Bess that opened in a Broadway revival Thursday night is not your grandma's P&B. In a controversial makeover that has ended up neither controversial nor very much made over, what you get is a compelling and confident mixture of opera and stage sense that drives the music as well as the story.
Some people - most notably Steven Sondheim - protested after news last summer that Pulitzer-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog) and director Diane Paulus (the recent revival of Hair) were adapting the 1935 opera by George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, with a nod from their estates. They were considering a different ending, more dialogue, new orchestration, a more feel-good interpretation. Sondheim wrote a strong, thoughtful letter to the New York Times opposing all tinkering.
As it turns out, the intervening months have produced minor changes in action and dialogue in the final scene that make the work a little more accessible and less bulky, and there's a bit more verbal grout between musical passages throughout.
But these modifications seem natural in such a well-considered production - seamless with Paulus at the helm, and radiant with industrial-strength polish from a cast led by Audra McDonald as a facially scarred Bess and Norm Lewis as the limping Porgy.
If you were lucky enough to see the Houston Grand Opera version that became a modern template for Porgy and Bess - its national tour stops included the Academy of Music in 1976 - you may recall the masterly singing in a production whose staging was solid but far from great. The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess - now its official title under the ownership of the Gershwin estate - is, in its elaborate staging and choreography, every bit as much Broadway as it is opera.
It boasts solid effects (Christopher Akerlind's lighting and Acme Sound Partners cook up an impressive hurricane); mighty fine outfits by Esosa, especially during a picnic; and Riccardo Hernandez's effective ramshackle steel facades pocked with shutters and windows that rim the square in the fictional Catfish Row neighborhood of Charleston, S.C.
Rather than mess with the script, Parks has judiciously adapted it, and composer Diedre L. Murray has done the same with the music, although I couldn't detect major changes except for some bridges between scenes. The delight in this production is that it seems to move along swiftly as something both new and old - taken on its own terms, as fresh as it is genuine.
I know that people intimate with the opera will take exception to the current version - and if they are offended, they should. For me, the revival is a depiction of a hard-living community of black people weighed down by official bigotry, yet surviving with a real sense of dignity.
McDonald sings Bess in a powerful operatic line that sometimes seems at odds with Lewis' less formally sung Porgy, but there's no denying that the dramatic result in their "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" and "I Loves You, Porgy" is effective, even crushing. David Alan Grier is wonderfully playful as Sporting Life, until he needs to be menacing. Nikki Renée Daniels and Joshua Henry deliver a sweet "Summertime," and the rest of the cast, featuring the superlative Phillip Boykin as Crown, is outstanding. So is the orchestra, tucked underneath an extended stage and led by Constantine Kitsopoulos.
The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess:
Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St., New York. Tickets: $65-$135.
Information: 1-877-250-2929 or porgyandbessonbroadway.com
Source: Philly.com
January 16, 2012
Porgy and Bess was groundbreaking: an opera about poor African-Americans in South Carolina, starring a cripple, a tramp, and a drug dealer. This weekend a new production opens on Broadway entitled The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, but it’s not the one George and Ira presented in 1935. Audiences will get new dialogue, back stories, and orchestrations courtesy of playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, director Diane Paulus, and musical director Deirdre Murray.
Parks, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, was approached by the Gershwins’ estates to turn the opera into a musical. “Right away it was very clear that these people who were singing these songs of love and passion, triumph and failure,” she tells Kurt Andersen, “they deserve a story that is equal to it.” She saw her job as not to rewrite but to fill in. “Dramaturgically, there are some holes in it,” she explains. “We just added a bridge — it’s a bridge not just to fill in a gap, but to provide Porgy and Bess, and the whole community actually with a strong story arc.”
Even before the show opened, traditionalists were distressed. Stephen Sondheim wrote a fiery letter to the New York Times blasting the production, in particular its title: “In the interest of truth in advertising, let it not be called The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, nor even The Gershwin-Heyward Porgy and Bess. Advertise it honestly as Diane Paulus’s Porgy and Bess. And the hell with the real one.”
Suzan-Lori Parks (Stephanie Diani)Parks stands by her changes and the right to make them. “It’s as if the Gershwin Estate has a brownstone, they invited me to do some work on their brownstone. It's their brownstone. ... End of conversation."
Parks remembers the first time she saw Porgy and Bess: she was in 2nd grade and she caught the 1959 movie on “the late late late late late late late show. And five minutes of it and I just was like ‘Oh, I don’t think so.” She remembers, “It looked like one of those movies where they didn't quite get to know us like I knew us.”
But those inaccuracies do not amount to racism, Parks thinks: “A lot of people hear ‘Suzan-Lori Parks is working on [the new production],’ or ‘a black woman is working on it’ … She’ll find it racist,’” she says, frustrated. “And me, I’m sitting here as a Pulitzer Prize-winning, Macarthur ‘genius’ writer. I look at it, yes, as a black woman, but also as a writer.”
Source: Studio360
January 14, 2012
The beloved Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess has returned to Broadway in a new production with a dream cast. Directed by Diane Paulus, the musical officially bowed on January 12 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre starring four-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis and David Alan Grier. The opening night featured enough star power to light Times Square as celebrities from TV, film and Broadway came out to welcome McDonald back to Broadway after a five-year hiatus. Post-show, the company and guests headed to the McKittrick Hotel (home of the off-Broadway hit Sleep No More) to celebrate.
Source: Broadway.com
January 12, 2012
We'll have a complete BWW TV preview up later, but we couldn't resist bringing you a sneak peek at a production montage for The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS on Broadway! The show opens on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre starring Audra McDonald as Bess, Norm Lewis as Porgy and David Alan Grier as Sporting Life.
Joining these Broadway A-listers onstage are Phillip Boykin as Crown, Nikki Renée Daniels as Clara, Joshua Henry as Jake, Christopher Innvar as Detective, Bryonha Marie Parham as Serena and NaTasha Yvette Williams as Mariah as well as Allison Blackwell, Roosevelt André Credit, Trevon Davis, Joseph Dellger, Wilkie Ferguson, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Heather Hill, David Hughey, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Alicia Hall Moran, Cedric Neal, Phumzile Sojola, Nathaniel Stampley, Julius Thomas III, J.D. Webster and Lisa Nicole Wilkerson.
The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS comes to Broadway in a new staging, featuring such legendary songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Got Plenty Of Nothing," plus a remarkable cast led by four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald (Ragtime, "Private Practice"), Drama Desk nominee Norm Lewis (Les Misérables, Sondheim on Sondheim) and two-time Tony nominee David Alan Grier (Race, "In Living Color"). The classic story by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward is set in Charleston's fabled Catfish Row, where the beautiful Bess struggles to break free from her scandalous past, and the only one who can rescue her is the crippled but courageous Porgy. Threatened by her formidable former lover Crown, and the seductive enticements of the colorful troublemaker Sporting Life, Porgy and Bess' relationship evolves into a deep romance that triumphs as one of theater's most exhilarating love stories.
Following its sold-out world premiere engagement at Boston's American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), the creative team, led by Tony-nominated director Diane Paulus(Hair), Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog), and two-time Obie Award-winning composer Diedre L. Murray (Running Man), now brings George and Ira Gershwin's legendary masterwork to the Broadway stage for the first time in more than 35 years.
The creative team also includes choreographer Ronald K. Brown, set designer Riccardo Hernandez, costume designer ESosa, lighting designer Christopher Akerlind and sound designer ACME Sound Partners. The A.R.T. production of The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS is produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Rebecca Gold.
Click here to see the video montage.
Source: Broadway World
December 23, 2011
Last night David Alan Grier talked about being on Broadway, how New Yorkers are really picky about their bagels, and he weighed in on In Living Color returning to the airwaves.
PART 1
PART 2
Source: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
December 11, 2011
The Broadway revival of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, starring four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, begins previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre Dec. 17. The cast offered a special Dec. 6 sneak peek for the media at New 42nd Street Studios.
Source: Playbill
December 11, 2011
David Alan Grier, Director Diane Paulus, Norm Lewis, Audra McDonald & Phillip Boykin. Photo Credit: Walter McBride
The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS comes to Broadway in a stirring new staging, featuring such legendary songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Got Plenty Of Nothing," plus a remarkable cast led by four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald (Ragtime, "Private Practice"), Drama Desk nominee Norm Lewis (Les Misérables, Sondheim on Sondheim) and two-time Tony nominee David Alan Grier (Race, "In Living Color"). The company met the press this week, and you can check out more photos from the event here.
Source: Broadway World
December 8, 2011
The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS comes to Broadway in a stirring new staging, featuring such legendary songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Got Plenty Of Nothing," plus a remarkable cast led by four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald (Ragtime, "Private Practice"), Drama Desk nominee Norm Lewis (Les Misérables, Sondheim on Sondheim) and two-time Tony nominee David Alan Grier (Race, "In Living Color").
Yesterday, the company met the press and treated the crowd to a performance preview.
The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS will begin previews on Saturday, December 17th, 2011 and open on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Tickets are now on sale at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 877-250-2929.
The classic story by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward is set in Charleston's fabled Catfish Row, where the beautiful Bess struggles to break free from her scandalous past, and the only one who can rescue her is the crippled but courageous Porgy. Threatened by her formidable former lover Crown, and the seductive enticements of the colorful troublemaker Sporting Life, Porgy and Bess' relationship evolves into a deep romance that triumphs as one of theater's most exhilarating love stories.
Following its sold-out world premiere engagement at Boston's 
American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), one of Broadway's most accomplished creative teams, led by Tony-nominated director Diane Paulus(Hair), Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog), and two-time Obie Award-winning composer Diedre L. Murray (Running Man), now brings George and Ira Gershwin's legendary masterwork to the Broadway stage for the first time in more than 35 years.
The creative team also includes choreographer Ronald K. Brown, set designer Riccardo Hernandez, costume designer ESosa, lighting designer Christopher Akerlind and sound designer ACME Sound Partners.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride
Source: Broadway World
November 16, 2011
A controversial adaptation of “Porgy and Bess” is losing its revisionist happy ending as it makes its way to Broadway, reports the New York Times. “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” starring Audra McDonald and David Alan Grier, was publicly castigated by Stephen Sondheim after the musical’s creative team decided to “flesh out” some of the characters with new dialogue. 
David Alan Grier and company in the American Repertory Theater's production of "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" (Michael J. Lutch - MICHAEL J. LUTCH)
Director Diane Paulus, known for directing the revival of “Hair,” and producer Jeffrey Richards decided the 1935 opera by George and Ira Gershwin needed an update to appeal to modern Broadway audiences, so they hired Pulitzer-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks to write new lines. That earned Paulus a rebuke from Sondheim, who said that the musical should be called “Diane Paulus’s Porgy and Bess.”
Peter Marks wrote this summer about the problems that directors and producers encounter when they update classic texts for contemporary audiences. Regarding Paulus, he wrote, “ [Her] intentions do not seem to be conveyed with the requisite clarity: The show very much feels like a work still trying to find its urgent rationale.”
Still, the contemporary audience that Sondheim says Paulus is condescending to might not even know the difference between the two versions. Writes Marks: “Much of the ‘revising’ of older works goes on these days without anyone kicking up a fuss. When it comes to classical theater in particular, playgoers can be forgiven for having no idea whether what they see in a modern ‘adaptation’ comes — for better or worse — close to the source material.”
After all of the back-and-forth about the ending, it all might be for naught: The publicity generated by Sondheim’s anger and the constant changes to the show may have generated enough buzz to pull in the young audiences Paulus is seeking.
Source: The Washington Post
November 15, 2011
Playbill.com has learned that the cast of the American Repertory Theater premiere of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess will repeat their work in the Broadway production, which will debut Dec. 17 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
At this time, producers have only confirmed the casting of four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald (Ragtime, Marie Christine, Master Class) as Bess, Norm Lewis (Sondheim on Sondheim, Side Show, Les Miserables) as Porgy and Tony Award nominee David Alan Grier (The First, Race, Dreamgirls) as Sportin' Life.
Also expected to return for the limited Broadway engagement are Tony nominee Joshua Henry (The Scottsboro Boys, American Idiot) as Jake, Nikki Renee Daniels as Clara, Phillip Boykin as Crown, Bryonha Marie Parham as Serena, NaTasha Yvette Williams as Maria, Cedric Neal as Frazier, J.D. Webster as Mingo, Heather Hill as Lily, Phumzile Sojola as Peter and Nathaniel Stampley as Robbins.
The A.R.T. ensemble included Allison Blackwell, Roosevelt Andre Credit, Trevon Davis, Joseph Dellger, Wilkie Ferguson, Alicia Hall Moran, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Lisa Nicole Wilkerson and Christopher Innvar.
Representatives for the production declined to comment on full Broadway casting.
Porgy and Bess began previews Aug. 17 at A.R.T., where it officially opened Aug. 31 and played an extended run through Oct. 2.
Tony Award-nominated director Diane Paulus (Hair) helms the production which has adaptation and additional scenes by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog, Book of Grace) and musical adaptation by Pulitzer Prize nominee Diedre Murray (Running Man).
Porgy and Bess has music by George Gershwin, lyrics by his brother Ira and a book and additional lyrics by DuBose Heyward. It is based on the play Porgy, by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward.
The revised staging of the four-hour folk opera has been contoured into a two-and-a-half-hour production. It is now billed as a musical.
The creative team includes choreographer Ronald K. Brown, set designer Riccardo Hernandez, costume designer Emilio Sosa and Tony Award-winning lighting designer Christopher Akerlind. Acme Sound Partners will design sound. Orchestrations are by William David Brohn and Christopher Jahnke, with music supervision by David Loud.
For tickets, visit Ticketmaster.com. The Richard Rodgers Theatre is located at 226 West 46th Street.
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| David Alan Grier and company |
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| photo by Michael Lutch |
Source: Playbill
November 7, 2011
Preach on, Mr. David Alan Grier. We are still listening.
And when we say preach, we mean it just as figuratively as we do literally. The comedic legend still owns the stage like a minister owns the pulpit, beckoning laughter from his congregation with the same assured cadence of a trusted leader of men, each punchline delivered with that You-Got-to-RISE-UP exclamation point.
Yes, Grier, or DAG as he’s bizarrely known in some circles, has had a tough couple of years, recently divorced for a second time and working through the cancellation of the short-lived Chocolate News on Comedy Central. But onstage, the Church of David Alan Grier is strong as ever, evidenced by a tour de force performance over the weekend at Cobb’s. It might have been one of the best shows of the year in a venue that regularly brings in the country’s top talent.
Grier looked a youthful 56 years old–even hip, with shaved bald head and denim jacket. And, to be sure, he showed no signs of slowing down. He’s just as quick and sharp as he was during his In Living Color days, shooting rapid-fire anecdotes from the hip, deflecting crowd interruptions with ease, never hesitating. It was the work of a virtuoso soloist at the top of his game.
He touched on various pop culture icons such as Tiger Woods (“These white ladies (banged) the talent out of him!”), Mel Gibson and President Obama (“I voted for a black president; lately he’s just been beige. I wanted him to be the guy who you close your windows and lock your doors when he’s coming down the street. Fear and intimidation!”). But the lion’s share of his stand-up was a wise man’s take on relationships — and the difference between marriage and the single life. Having been through his fair share of both, Grier addressed the young men in the audience: “Are you listening? I’m trying to help! You gotta listen to me like I’m Oprah with a (penis).”
He talked about those first days in a relationship when there’s no hassles, just rose petals and sex, all day every day. “Should I tell them what happens?” he asked the more experienced couples (identifying them, then recognizing their yells — “I know that scream, like a prisoner who one day dreams of freedom!”). “Should I spoil the surprise?” he asked again.
And Grier spoiled the surprise and then some, acting out the scenes of everyday married life like Will Smith acting out the life of Muhammad Ali, fighting for every last word. He eventually summarized: “I ruined two perfectly good whores with matrimony and devotion."
Grier, never one to shy away from theatrics, again proved himself quite the physical comedian. He pantomimed (and beatboxed) his way through a single dude’s typical night at the club as well as the hunt for intimacy with one’s wife with equal zeal. And he recounted his own sobering realization at the club, when an old bathroom attendant — so old he looked like he could have been a “runaway slave” — said he’d been watching Grier his whole life and would love an autograph. “Whole life? What does that mean for me?”
What it really means is Grier has had a career anyone could call complete, but let’s hope he’s nowhere near the finale. Let us pray that Minister DAG is just getting started.
Feature act Hugh Moore, another known entity from Chocolate News, warned the crowd that “I'll be doing a lot of complaining tonight,” but it never seemed like the work of an old curmudgeon, but a fresh voice on the rise. He had a great bit about not liking women who smoke weed — “you know they get that weed-smoker voice — ‘You know I be pregnant right?’ ” Moore also pointed out the inordinate amount of crazy people in San Francisco, but that it’s not the ones who are talking to themselves who are really crazy, it’s the ones who listen to themselves, nodding silently to themselves as if they’re getting directions from a possessor. Come to think of it, he’s right, and often.
Source: 7x7
November 5, 2011
David Alan Grier joined Fernando and Greg this morning to discuss Kim Kardashian’s divorce, the new remake of “In Living Color” and most importantly secrets about “Dancing With The Stars”! You have to listen to this interview and find out what really happens behind-the-scenes.
Click here for part one of the interview!
Click Here to see photos In Studio…
Source: 99.7 Now
November 4, 2011
David Alan Grier is a very talented entertainer. He's a comedian, a film and television actor, and also a two-time Tony Award nominee.
He was in San Francisco to play at Cobb's Comedy Club and stopped by 7Live to talk about In Living Color, Kim Kardashian's divorce, giving wedding rings back, reality TV, "Porgy and Bess, and being nominated for a Tony Award.
Source: 7 Live
November 2, 2011
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| David Alan Grier (left); bacon from Manny's Steak House (right) |
Whether it's potatoes au gratin from the original Escoffier recipe or curried goat (with coconut milk made from scratch), David Alan Grier is one serious foodie. The actor and funnyman, who we still revere from In Living Color (which has been resurrected for a couple of upcoming specials), has a food blog. Though Grier doesn't post to DAG's Food Blog (a.k.a. Chocolate Glutton) very often, when he does, he doesn't mess around.
Grier's culinary experiments span a wide range of cultures from pot stickers to salumi to pozole, and he tries his hand at some adventurous recipes. Back in February, he cooked bunny rabbit, modifying a recipe from The Silver Spoon cookbook. He also writes of his food adventures in other cities, calling the 1/4-inch thick cut bacon from Manny's Steak House at the W Hotel in Minneapolis "the most delicious bacon I've ever had in my life." Add David Alan Grier to the list of celebrity gluttons we adore.
Source: LA Weekly
October 28, 2011
David Alan Grier has certainly come a long way from his In Living Color days. He's done tons of movies, he kills in Poker, he's a two time Tony nominee, the author of the book "Barack Like Me," and he was even on Dancing With The Stars!
The one thing that shines the brightest amongst his many talents has got to be his brilliant humor, though. DAG is coming to the Irvine Improv tonight through Sunday, but we were lucky enough to partake in one of his greatest talents in person--read the interview after the jump.
OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): I'm sure everyone asks this so let's get it out of the way. Chocolate News? Any chance at all? Maybe a web series?
David Alan Grier: It's done. Everyone asks me that all of the time but it's cancelled. I'm gonna keep doing what I do. Is there a possible special? Maybe it'll be me and another name, another formation, another suit. But I'm still here! I'm still kickin' it!
I was just thinking that a "Licorice Stick" Christmas album with a video would be amazing. You and those leopard man-panties? Very sexy.
Yes! Thank you so much! [Laughs.] I hear what you're saying honey!
I have an embarrassing question to ask via my father. Be warned...it's embarrassing for me to even ask it.
Oh my gosh. No, I did not go to school with him.
Ha. You're a touch younger and don't judge me based on him. He asks, "How many snaps would you give the Fly Girls these days?"
Oh wow! I'd give them a brisk handshake. You know, we're all older. There have been a couple of times when a portly handsome middle-aged woman goes, "David it's me! I was one of the Fly Girls!" I haven't seen them lately. Deidre was one of the original Fly Girls and we're friends on Facebook. She still looks fabulous! I'm more worried about me! I'm trying not to sag, drop or break!
As if! How's the cooking been going?
It's been hard to cook because I've been so busy with the show but I started a cooking blog called Chocolate Glutton. I think some people think on the blog I'm going to be funny, but it's something I'm really serious about. When I did Race I would cook like, once or twice a week for the cast of only four people. James Spader would be like, "Yeah, I'll take some of those short ribs!" [Laughs.]
I admit, I thought it was going to be funny too. But when I got on there I was like, this guy can really cook!
I'm not bull-shitting! Also, I've just gotten into ice cream. So I've been making a bunch of ice cream. My daughter Lulu and I are going to go to Thanksgiving dinner and we're going to contribute the ice cream. Chocolate chocolate chip! We actually made it by hand and it's a very rich recipe. That's how you get em', that's how Ben and Jerry's got em'! Am I getting too technical already?
Ha! No please go on. If Lulu can make ice cream, then I can too. Give me the secret!
Seven egg yolks. It's twice as much. It's twice as heavy as any ice cream your ever gonna buy. It's like, oh my gosh.
So you're like, waiting to die after you eat it?
Uhhh....you know it's like crack. You don't smoke it every day.
Gotcha. Since your range is so broad with acting, what do you lean towards liking the most?
I lean towards trying to do the most exciting thing. A lot of stuff gets in front of you by planning and preparation and it took almost three years to get Chocolate News on the air. There was a lot of development. I'm working with stuff now but in the meantime, I work with Diane Paulus and Jeffery Richards on Porgy and Bess. To have the opportunity to do this, well I really wanted to take advantage of it.
When does Porgy and Bess start on Broadway?
We open on Broadway January 12th so I've got like two months of road gigs before I go away for like, a year.
Damn you do a lot! I also didn't know you were the voice of the Kobe Bryant puppet in the Nike commercial!
[Laughs.] Yeah. I was my voice though and I was playing Kobe. I called him though and he gave me notes on how he talks and how he acts.
So being that you are from Detroit, are you a Pistons fan or a Lakers fan?
Lakers man! Because the Pistons don't actually play in Detroit, that's why.
Hmmm I see. Thoughts on the lockout?
It's depressing as hell. I wish it would stop. I just want to see people play.
I concur! What do you have in store for the good people of Irvine this time around?
Well it's always new stuff. At lot has happened since last year! You know what I try to do is say, once a year let me write just one good joke.
Ummm...yeah. I highly doubt you only write one joke a year. Most everything you say is comedy.
[Laughs.] You're like, yeahhh no. I love performing! It's something I really cherish. Irvine is pretty much one of my favorite clubs. They're a good crowd and I love coming back there. You get the best of everything. You get to sleep in your own bed, great audiences, and great management. It's a good club and it'll be fun!
We couldn't agree more! Get tickets now see David Alan Grier at the Irvine Improv Thursday (10/27) through Sunday (10/30) before it sells out! Check out DAG's website for videos and schwag at www.davidalangrier.net and follow him on Twitter @davidalangrier. For tickets log on to: www.improv.com. The Improv is located at 71 Fortune Drive Irvine, CA 92618 (21+ over)
Source: OC Weekly
October 27, 2011
David Alan Grier
Theater, television, and film dot David Alan Grier’s past, and his ability to excel in all three mediums is a testament to the man’s inherent sense of comic timing.
His television work is highlighted by a turn as principle cast member on "In Living Color," where he helped to create some of that show’s most memorable characters, and also as a co-star on Bonnie Hunt’s hit ABC comedy "Life With Bonnie."
| Date | Time | Type | Tools |
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| Thu, Oct 27 | 8:00p |   |
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| Fri, Oct 28 | 8:00p | |
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| Fri, Oct 28 | 10:00p | |
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| Sat, Oct 29 | 9:00p | |
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Source: OC Register
October 26, 2011
| # | EVENT NAME | DATE/TIME | SEATING CHART |
| 1. | David Alan Grier | Thu. Nov 3, 2011 8:00 PM |
| 2. | David Alan Grier | Fri. Nov 4, 2011 10:15 PM |
| 3. | David Alan Grier | Sat. Nov 5, 2011 8:00 PM |
| 4. | David Alan Grier | Sat. Nov 5, 2011 10:15 PM |
| 5. | David Alan Grier | Sun. Nov 6, 2011 8:00 PM |
| Address: | 915 Columbus Avenue |
| City: | San Francisco |
| State: | CA |
| Zip Code: | null |
| Country: | US |
| Phone: | 415-928-4320 |
Source: Cobbs Comedy Club
October 25, 2011
October 11, 2011
David Alan Grier pretends the drugs found in Michael Jackson's system are childrens' names.
Source: The Adam Carrola Show
October 3, 2011
Oct. 22, Music Box
Television and film star David Alan Grier will make his Borgata debut Saturday, October 22, 9pm. Tickets Are $29.50 and $32.50.
Grier was named one of Comedy Central’s “100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.” His television work is highlighted by a turn as a cast member on In Living Color (1990-1994) where he helped to create some of the show’s most memorable characters. Grier also appeared on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars (2009).
In Grier’s first book, BARACK LIKE ME: The Chocolate Covered Truth, he expounds on politics, culture and race while recounting his own life story.
Source: Atlantic City Weekly
September 30, 2011
Detroit's own David Alan Grier (Cass Tech, U-M) has a hot new role starring in the Broadway-bound opera, "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," an interpretation by the American Repertory Theater of the 1935 George & Ira Gershwin opera. Grier, 56, plays Sporting Life , a slick drug dealer who tempts Bess and induces her to run off with him (he sings "It Ain't Necessarily So"). While many first saw Grier on TV's "In Living Color," doing opera isn't such a stretch; he studied Shakespeare at Yale. The lush Gershwin music, particularly "Summertime," has weathered the years well, but some of the characterizations have been tweaked with the approval of the Gershwin estate. This drew squawks from theater legend Stephen Sondheim . But the production — and Grier — have been earning raves in previews in Cambridge, Mass. "Porgy and Bess" opens on Broadway Jan. 12.
Source: The Detriot News
September 27, 2011
Click here to see the program on PBS.
JEFFREY BROWN: And finally tonight, a new interpretation of a classic opera, currently in a pre-Broadway run in Cambridge, Mass.
Our story comes from PBS station WGBH in Boston. The reporter is Jared Bowen.
JARED BOWEN, WGBH: "Porgy and Bess," much like the tale of tortured romance it tells, has been mightily tossed by storms during its 76-year history, caught in tempests over creative license and charges of racism.
Now there is controversy once again, as the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., stages a new adaptation.
(SINGING)
JARED BOWEN: The show is set in Catfish Row, a fictionalized enclave of Charleston, S.C., where drugs and violence are pervasive. It's after a murder that the drug-addled Bess lands in the arms of the disabled beggar Porgy.
This view of African-American life in the 1930s came from the show's white creators, George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward.
David Alan Grier plays Sporting Life, a drug dealer.
DAVID ALAN GRIER, actor: It was a different time. You know, the outlet for black voices, black intellectuals to tell our story was different.
JARED BOWEN: From the moment George Gershwin chose to adopt DuBose Heyward's novel "Porgy" into an opera, there's been controversy, controversy that he dare to create anything but popular music, that he dare write music solely for African-American performers at a time when much of the country was segregated, and that he presumed to be able to tell the story of a black community.
Audra McDonald plays Bess.
AUDRA MCDONALD, actress: When people say, is "Porgy and Bess" racist, I say no, just because I really feel that he had the best intentions when he wrote it. He wanted to get in and be inside of a community, show their wants, their desires, their hopes, their dreams, their fears.
JARED BOWEN: When it debuted at Boston's Colonial Theatre in September 1935 and premiered on Broadway shortly after, "Porgy and Bess" was punctuated with pointed stereotypes and grossly derogatory terms.
Adapting the opera today for the ART musical is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks.
SUZAN-LORI PARKS, playwright: I didn't approach as, you know, it's a racist show, so I have to make it politically correct. Not at all. It's a show with some dramatic holes, some missteps dramatically. I have to make it right. I have to flesh out the characters.
(SINGING)
AUDRA MCDONALD: From the very beginning, we were setting out to make sure that this is about people and their struggles and their story, and really focusing on the dramatic story, as opposed to look at all those black people up there. Boy, they sing well and, oh, they get passionate. And then they kill and they drink the whiskey, and they smoke the, you know, whatever. So I don't feel like I have had to stress about that in any way.
JARED BOWEN: Some of the original opera's scenes were too stereotypical for Parks.
SUZAN-LORI PARKS: The mammy, a large woman with a hand on the hip doing that, you know, the Aunt Jemima type kind of thing, and then the cowering, well-dressed dandy: Oh, I'm scared. The dandy and the mammy. I don't know any -- any street character like Sporting Life who would take this kind of crap from anybody.
So, instead of a mammy moment, I made a mommy moment, in which I said, well, how can this moment work in the real world? And I thought, oh, she knows his mother. And any tough guy we know, all tough guys, if you start saying, hey, I know your mother and I'm going to tell on you, they're like, ah, come on, don't be telling my mama.
JARED BOWEN: The ART says it was the Gershwin estate that invited changing when it hand-picked artistic creator Diane Paulus to create a musical from the original opera.
DIANE PAULUS, "Porgy and Bess": To make "Porgy and Bess" into more of a musical, it's about breathing, stopping, letting air come in, letting silence play a role and also letting there be dialogue.
ACTOR: Look at that smile you got.
ACTRESS: What you been up to?
ACTOR: Nothing.
SUZAN-LORI PARKS: Sometimes, I need to add words, sometimes whole new scenes, sometimes take an old scene and turn it inside-out and make it new.
(SINGING)
JARED BOWEN: But it's these types of changes that have riled some, like Stephen Sondheim, who delivered the most thunderous criticism in August when, in learning of the changes, but without having seen the show, he wrote The New York Times: "There is a difference between reinterpretation and wholesale rewriting. Advertise it honestly as Diane Paulus' 'Porgy and Bess,' and to hell with the real one."
SUZAN-LORI PARKS: The purist, I mean, they have their right, if that's how they want to spend their energy. It's such a great opera. And if they want to see it in its purest state -- like, if they want to see Shakespeare done in the Globe with bearbaiting and people who haven't bathed recently and all men on stage, they can -- you know, I'm sure there are places that will provide that opportunity for them.
DAVID ALAN GRIER: I have never done Shakespeare in 30 years where they didn't cut, snip, change this, get rid of that. Hamlet's speech is too long. You know, let's do this. And that's just Gibson, Chekhov, everybody.
JARED BOWEN: In its storied history, "Porgy and Bess" has evolved since its opening night in Boston. It's gone from opera to film to the musical. After the Boston debut, Gershwin immediately cut 45 minutes from the show. And two years later, after George's untimely death, Ira Gershwin also made changes.
DIANE PAULUS: There were things that were still in motion, not to say that the work we have from Gershwin isn't a masterpiece -- it is -- but that there was potential in there that was being wrestled with.
AUDRA MCDONALD: People have been trying to put it in a box for all these years. It's an opera. It's a musical. It's -- I think it just continues to kind of defy and sort of -- it's like this big, large squid that just keeps plopping out, and you're like, no, I'm all of these things.
JARED BOWEN: Most notably, it's an American story that continues to resonate and provoke.
Source: PBS
