"On My Way" The Untold Story of Rouben Mamoulian, George Gershwin, and Porgy and Bess

A forgotten master of American musical theater, Rouben Mamoulian directed the original production of Porgy and Bess, the opera that catapulted his career and led to both successes and failures. Culling newly released information from the Mamoulian Archives at the Library of Congress, Joseph Horowitz shows that, more than any other individual, Mamoulian transformed DuBose Heyward's 1925 novella, Porgy, from a quasi-realistic regional cameo into an epic theater work about suffering and redemption. In vividly rendered scenes of sound and movement, "On My Way" transports readers to the rehearsals and performances that Mamoulian singularly reconceived and choreographed, and the laudatory or scathing reviews that followed. Part history and part biography, "On My Way" re-creates Mamoulian's unique directorial style on stage and screen, his collaboration with musical genius George Gershwin, and the opera that changed the face of American musical life.