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Great operas and musicals are pretty resilient. You can cut them, twist them or modernize them, and they still retain their musical and narrative power. Same goes for the classic “Porgy and Bess,” which is back on Broadway in heavily edited version. Purists may grumble, but this “Porgy and Bess” still breaks your heart and lifts your soul.

Although the Gershwins' folk opera is set in the 1930s in Catfish Row, South Carolina, the stylized set and lighting suggest a more abstract, mythic zone. Our romantic heroes are Porgy, a lame beggar played by Norm Lewis, and Bess, a drug-addicted woman of easy virtue played by the glorious Audra McDonald. Bess is the girlfriend of Crown, a violent gambler powerfully incarnated by Phillip Boykin, aided by a sleazy drug pusher, Sporting Life, played with sly swagger by David Alan Grier.

“Porgy and Bess” is a story of abjection and deliverance, the war between faith and despair. Those strong narrative qualities still come through in the handsome, vibrant staging by Diane Paulus who, in the spirit of full disclosure, is the sister of NY1 general manager Steve Paulus.

Suzan-Lori Parks has scrubbed the libretto of its retro dialect. And Deidre L. Murray makes even more radical changes to the score, de-emphasizing its operatic qualities. This leads to some loss of beautiful singing, but not with Audra McDonald: fierce, full-bodied and fearless, and born to be Bess. Together, she and Lewis make beautiful music.

It’s wonderful to see “Porgy and Bess” back on Broadway. Due to a fine cast, clever direction and the inherent glories of the score, this “revisal” has integrity. Does it have more or greater integrity than what you’d see in an opera house? As Sportin’ Life sings, it ain’t necessarily so.