South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Show’s director on a mission
Broadway veteran puts his stamp on “Porgy and Bess.”
Richard Jay-Alexander is a ball of energy, hands flailing and talking in a rapid staccato. He uses the word “intense” often, and talks about live theater as if it’s a matter of life and death. “Look,” he says, “when you’re doing a big production, the stakes have to be high, because the stakes are high.”
Most recently, Jay-Alexander has planted his stake in the South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s production of “Porgy and Bess.” The George Gershwin-penned musical is quite an undertaking for the Wilton Manors-based orchestra, which began as the Key West Symphony Orchestra in August 1997. True to its name, it plays South Florida with concerts at three venues for each of its programs: the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, the Broward Center for the Per- forming Arts in Fort Lauderdale, and the Tennessee Williams Theatre in Key West. “Porgy and Bess” will be performed Jan. 16 in Miami, Jan. 19 in Key West and Jan. 23 in Fort Lauderdale.
“I personally had never heard of the South Florida Symphony,” admits JayAlexander, who lives in Miami Beach. Last February, he went to see singer Liz Callaway, whom he had directed in a show at Carnegie Hall, when she was performing at the Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht Center. “And this orchestra was playing behind her, and I was like, ‘Holy crap. Why don’t I know about this orchestra?’ ”
He recalls another “holy crap” moment in the middle of the performance, when one of the singers on the bill, Neil Nelson, announced he was going to be starring in the orchestra’s production of “Porgy and Bess.”
“I went berserk,” he says. “I was like, “Where? How? What?’ ”
Jay-Alexander says he became a man on a mission. He walked into the aftershow reception and told Callaway he needed to meet whomever he could talk to about being part of the symphony’s “Porgy and Bess.”