Kurt Weill: Lady in the Dark (Excerpts)
The basic playbook for the musical Lady in the Dark was authored by Hart Moss and based on his own experiences with psychoanalysis. Ira Gershwin provided the lyrics and Kurt Weill composed the music. Weill’s music is almost entirely confined to the dream sequences, and includes such favorites as “One Life to Live,” “The Saga of Jenny,” and the lyrical “My ship.” The underlying musical current is Liza’s obsession with a tune she cannot finish, and which she will not name. The dreamlike mix of fantasy and reality provides a perfect arena for the seductive and dramatic power of Weill’s music. After a trial run in Boston, it opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on 23 January 1941, and closed on 30 May 1942 after 467 performances. The New York Times wrote, “it uses the resources of the theater magnificently and tells a compassionate story triumphantly… The finest score written for the theatre in years…Gershwin’s lyrics are brilliant; a work of theater art.”
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