Performance

It Ain’t Necessarily So

0 upcoming performances in New York

Written by George and Ira Gershwin for their 1935 opera *Porgy and Bess*, “It Ain’t Necessarily So” is sung by Sportin’ Life, a streetwise dealer who turns biblical stories into targets for skepticism. The melody doubles as his musical signature, returning as a reminder of his influence on the drama. In New York, the work’s first run at the Alvin Theatre placed this uneasy mix of opera, jazz idiom, and Broadway craft in the center of the city’s cultural debate. Its sharpest point is how doubt becomes entertainment, and persuasion becomes a tune.