Performance

It Ain’t Necessarily So

0 upcoming performances in New York

George and Ira Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” appears in *Porgy and Bess* (1935) as the signature number for Sportin’ Life, who needles religious certainty by questioning Bible stories. The tune functions as his recurring musical fingerprint, returning whenever his skepticism and hustler’s charm enter the scene. Although the opera’s first staging was in Boston, New York quickly became the work’s ongoing proving ground through Broadway runs, revivals, and concert performances. The song endures because it frames doubt as character, not decoration, and it unsettles the moral order around it.