Arts & Culture

In 1935, George Gershwin brought the script for his folk opera Porgy and Bess to the opera's original cast, which was entirely made up of African-American actors. "[In the original], every other word was N-word this, N-word that," says actor David Alan Grier. "[And] there's a very famous story: Al Jolson really wanted to play Porgy, in blackface."

Idina Menzel is touring the nation, performing "No Day But Today," her signature song from the musical Rent. That show made Menzel, playing the flirtatious performance artist Maureen Johnson, famous in the late-1990s. She followed with her Tony Award-winning role as the green-faced Wicked Witch of the West in the musical Wicked. More recently, she's had a recurring spot on the TV show Glee.

Actor and singer Cheyenne Jackson is equally at home on Broadway and in front of the camera. He made his Broadway debut as the understudy for both male leads in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and his cabaret debut, a one-man show titled Back to the Start, was a sold-out hit. His love of music comes from digging through vinyl at yard sales around his family farm in Idaho, and his love of Broadway comes from the time he saw a touring production of Les Miserables in Spokane, Wash., with his French teacher.

Each week on Nolavie.com, writer Keith Marshall contributes a column called How's Bayou? He examines the secrets that keep him sane while juggling an upscale Bed & Breakfast on Bayou Lafourche and working at Dixie Art Supplies in Elmwood.

On this week's Notes from New Orleans, Sharon Litwin brings her good friend to the microphone.

New Orleans veteran actor Ricky Graham takes on a one woman comedy as Southern Rep Theater presents Willy Russell's one character play - Shirley Valentine.  We go Inside the Arts as Graham morphs into a middle aged housewife who is stuck in a rut and wants to live again.

Performances run thru May 27th at the Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp Street.

The New York Shakespeare Exchange says its goal is "to encourage an enthusiastic appreciation of classical theater and to expand the reach of the art form within new and existing audiences." More specifically, it's interested in the question of "what happens when contemporary culture is infused with Shakespearean poetry and themes in unexpected ways."

What, exactly, does that mean?