Happy End (musical)
Encyclopedia
Happy End is a surrealistic three-act musical
comedy by Kurt Weill
, Elisabeth Hauptmann
, and Bertolt Brecht
which first opened in Berlin at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm
on September 2, 1929. It closed after seven performances. In 1977 it premiered on Broadway
, where it ran for 75 performances.
, the duo devised this musical, written by Elisabeth Hauptmann
under the pseudonym
of Dorothy Lane. Hauptmann's sources included, among others, Major Barbara.
The story is reminiscent of, but not the source of, the better-known musical Guys and Dolls
, which is based on Damon Runyon
's short story, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown
".
The debut was plagued by problems. Hauptmann never finished the book of the musical, the play's opening debut saw cast member Helene Weigel
reading from a Communist
pamphlet on stage, and it was met with near-unanimous pans from the German press and deemed a total failure.
Nevertheless, the musical was subsequently produced in Europe, the first time in Munich in 1956. Successive productions included Hamburg in 1957, London in 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre
and Frankfurt in 1983, along with a 1979 German film version.
The musical premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on May 7, 1977 and closed on July 10, 1977 after 75 performances. Directed by Robert Kalfin and Patricia Birch
and staged by Birch, the cast starred Christopher Lloyd
, Grayson Hall
and Meryl Streep
.
A 1984 production by Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage was televised as part of the short-lived "America's Musical Theater" series on PBS. A 2006 production by San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater
used an English adaptation by Michael Feingold, and also had a CD cast recording. This version has been performed in venues including New York and Baltimore.
Despite the poor initial reception of the play, several musical numbers have seen continued popularity, including "Surabaya Johnny", sung by Lillian Holiday and "Bilbao Song".
A gang of criminals is hanging out in Bill's Beer Hall, plotting their shakedown of a local pharmacist while waiting for their mysterious female boss named The Fly, and her top tough guy Bill Cracker. Bill arrives with a homburg hat – a trophy from Gorilla Baxley, a rival gang leader whom he has just "taken care of". The gang rejoices – Bill's Beer Hall will now be the center of crime in Chicago, as great as the original Bill's Beer Hall in Bilbao ("The Bilbao Song") says the Governor which has since gotten very bourgeois and respectable.
A policeman drops off an old lady who passed out in the street. She turns out to be The Fly in disguise, and tells them a big bank job is set for Christmas Eve – two days away. The Fly is angry that Bill murdered Baxley without her consent and signals the gang to kill him. The Fly leaves and the gang plots to frame Bill for killing the pharmacist they were planning to shake down.
A Salvation Army
band begins to play out on the street ("Lieutenants of the Lord"). Sister Lilian (or Lillian) Holiday brings the band inside the bar ("March Ahead"), and begins to try to convert the gang. They try to assault her and Bill comes to her rescue. When the gang and the band leaves, Lilian stays behind with Bill and tries again to reach him, singing "The Sailors' Tango".
Brother Hannibal returns with the band and is shocked at Lilian's behavior. After finding Bill's gun there, the police burst in and arrest Bill for the murder of the pharmacist in his shop.
Act Two
At the Canal Street Mission, Major Stone is questioning Lilian's actions. She sings a reprise of "The Sailors' Tango". The police come to take Lilian's statement. She gives Bill an alibi – she was alone with him in the bar when the murder was committed. Brother Hannibal faints—the result of an old head injury—and the Major relieves Lilian of all her duties and tosses her out of the mission. The service begins ("Brother Give Yourself a Shove") and Sisters Jane and Mary, who are left to deliver Lilian's sermon, fail miserably.
Meanwhile back at Bill's Beerhall, the Governor, The Fly's new second in command, tells BabyFace that The Fly had made a secret deal with Gorilla Baxley to take over his gang which is now off. He gives BabyFace advice on being tough ("Song of the Big Shot").
Back at the Mission, Bill arrives at the end of the service ("Don't Be Afraid") looking for Lilian. Sam from the gang is there and tells him Lilian is gone as Hannibal sings the final hymn ("In Our Childhood's Bright Endeavor").
Lilian comes to the bar looking for Bill. Sam runs in saying Bill is out of jail and at the Mission looking for Lilian. The Governor gets his gun and goes to the Mission. Hannibal is singing "The Liquor Dealer's Dream". The Governor and Bill go out the door. There are sounds of a fight, a gunshot, and a splash. Bill runs in interrupting the last refrain. "Sing that last chorus again," he cries and jumps out the window just as Lilian comes through the front door.
Act Three
Christmas Eve – Bill & the gang are preparing for the big bank job. The Professor is fiddling with some sort of two way radio and Sam is dressed as a woman. They joke with Sam who sings "The Mandalay Song".
The Fly's voice comes over the radio and gives the gang their instructions. Bill will be in charge of grabbing the money. As the gang leaves, Lilian enters. She is disappointed Bill has gone back to his life of crime ("Surabaya Johnny").
Bill cries at her song but says he's still tough ("Big Shot Reprise"). The Fly comes in disguised as a newsboy. Bill recognises her and realises he's almost missed the hold up. He runs out and Lilian storms out behind him.
The gang returns but Bill is nowhere to be found. The Fly puts the hit out on him again. "Take care of him tonight and leave worrying about the money till tomorrow" (The Ballad of the Lily of Hell").
Lilian returns to the Mission and so does Bill. The Major wants nothing to do with either of them. The gang rushes in. Bill shows them he has the money. A cop comes in and the gang offers up the false alibis The Fly had given them. But the cop is there to question Bill about the disappearance of The Governor. The door flies open and The Governor walks in ("Big Shot Reprise 2"). He had only hit his head falling into a shallow part of the canal. Everyone is innocent so the policeman leaves.
Now The Fly comes in, gun drawn. Hannibal shouts "Sadie!" It turns out that he is the Fly's long lost husband ("In our Childhood Reprise"). She gives him the loot which he turns over to the Major. The Major gives Lilian her job back. The Fly steps forward and says the two groups should unite to fight for the poor against the injustices of the rich ("Epilogue: Hosanna Rockefeller"). A drunken Santa Claus appears at an upstairs window and the whole group reprise "The Bilbao Song".
Act I
Bill’s Beer Hall, December 22
Act II
The Salvation Army Mission, Canal Street, and the Beer Hall, December 23
Act III
Scene 1: The Beer Hall, December 24
Scene 2: The Mission, later that night
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
comedy by Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
, Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann was a German writer who worked with Bertolt Brecht....
, and Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
which first opened in Berlin at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm
Theater am Schiffbauerdamm
The Theater am Schiffbauerdamm is a theatre building at the Schiffbauerdamm riverside in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, opened on November 19, 1892. Since 1954 it is home to the Berliner Ensemble theatre company, founded in 1949 by Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht.The original name of the...
on September 2, 1929. It closed after seven performances. In 1977 it premiered on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, where it ran for 75 performances.
Production history
After the success of Weill and Brecht's previous collaboration, The Threepenny OperaThe Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
, the duo devised this musical, written by Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann was a German writer who worked with Bertolt Brecht....
under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Dorothy Lane. Hauptmann's sources included, among others, Major Barbara.
The story is reminiscent of, but not the source of, the better-known musical Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably...
, which is based on Damon Runyon
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and writer.He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the...
's short story, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown
The Idyll Of Miss Sarah Brown
"The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" is a short story by Damon Runyon upon which the musical Guys and Dolls is based. It was first published in 1933. In 1949, it was dramatized on radio as part of a program called Damon Runyon Theatre....
".
The debut was plagued by problems. Hauptmann never finished the book of the musical, the play's opening debut saw cast member Helene Weigel
Helene Weigel
Helene Weigel was a distinguished German actress. She was the second wife of Bertolt Brecht, and together they had a son Stefan Brecht and daughter Barbara Brecht-Schall .The daughter of a Jewish lawyer, she became a Communist Party member from 1930 and Artistic Director of the...
reading from a Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
pamphlet on stage, and it was met with near-unanimous pans from the German press and deemed a total failure.
Nevertheless, the musical was subsequently produced in Europe, the first time in Munich in 1956. Successive productions included Hamburg in 1957, London in 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
and Frankfurt in 1983, along with a 1979 German film version.
The musical premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on May 7, 1977 and closed on July 10, 1977 after 75 performances. Directed by Robert Kalfin and Patricia Birch
Patricia Birch
Patricia Birch is an American choreographer and director for musical theatre and film.Born in Englewood, New Jersey, Birch began her career as a dancer in Broadway musicals, including Brigadoon, Goldilocks, and West Side Story . She has directed and choreographed music videos for Cyndi Lauper, the...
and staged by Birch, the cast starred Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall was an American television, film and stage actress. She was widely regarded for her avant garde theatrical performances in the 1960s-80s. Hall was nominated in 1964 for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the John Huston film The Night of the Iguana...
and Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
.
A 1984 production by Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage was televised as part of the short-lived "America's Musical Theater" series on PBS. A 2006 production by San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...
used an English adaptation by Michael Feingold, and also had a CD cast recording. This version has been performed in venues including New York and Baltimore.
Despite the poor initial reception of the play, several musical numbers have seen continued popularity, including "Surabaya Johnny", sung by Lillian Holiday and "Bilbao Song".
Plot
Act OneA gang of criminals is hanging out in Bill's Beer Hall, plotting their shakedown of a local pharmacist while waiting for their mysterious female boss named The Fly, and her top tough guy Bill Cracker. Bill arrives with a homburg hat – a trophy from Gorilla Baxley, a rival gang leader whom he has just "taken care of". The gang rejoices – Bill's Beer Hall will now be the center of crime in Chicago, as great as the original Bill's Beer Hall in Bilbao ("The Bilbao Song") says the Governor which has since gotten very bourgeois and respectable.
A policeman drops off an old lady who passed out in the street. She turns out to be The Fly in disguise, and tells them a big bank job is set for Christmas Eve – two days away. The Fly is angry that Bill murdered Baxley without her consent and signals the gang to kill him. The Fly leaves and the gang plots to frame Bill for killing the pharmacist they were planning to shake down.
A Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
band begins to play out on the street ("Lieutenants of the Lord"). Sister Lilian (or Lillian) Holiday brings the band inside the bar ("March Ahead"), and begins to try to convert the gang. They try to assault her and Bill comes to her rescue. When the gang and the band leaves, Lilian stays behind with Bill and tries again to reach him, singing "The Sailors' Tango".
Brother Hannibal returns with the band and is shocked at Lilian's behavior. After finding Bill's gun there, the police burst in and arrest Bill for the murder of the pharmacist in his shop.
Act Two
At the Canal Street Mission, Major Stone is questioning Lilian's actions. She sings a reprise of "The Sailors' Tango". The police come to take Lilian's statement. She gives Bill an alibi – she was alone with him in the bar when the murder was committed. Brother Hannibal faints—the result of an old head injury—and the Major relieves Lilian of all her duties and tosses her out of the mission. The service begins ("Brother Give Yourself a Shove") and Sisters Jane and Mary, who are left to deliver Lilian's sermon, fail miserably.
Meanwhile back at Bill's Beerhall, the Governor, The Fly's new second in command, tells BabyFace that The Fly had made a secret deal with Gorilla Baxley to take over his gang which is now off. He gives BabyFace advice on being tough ("Song of the Big Shot").
Back at the Mission, Bill arrives at the end of the service ("Don't Be Afraid") looking for Lilian. Sam from the gang is there and tells him Lilian is gone as Hannibal sings the final hymn ("In Our Childhood's Bright Endeavor").
Lilian comes to the bar looking for Bill. Sam runs in saying Bill is out of jail and at the Mission looking for Lilian. The Governor gets his gun and goes to the Mission. Hannibal is singing "The Liquor Dealer's Dream". The Governor and Bill go out the door. There are sounds of a fight, a gunshot, and a splash. Bill runs in interrupting the last refrain. "Sing that last chorus again," he cries and jumps out the window just as Lilian comes through the front door.
Act Three
Christmas Eve – Bill & the gang are preparing for the big bank job. The Professor is fiddling with some sort of two way radio and Sam is dressed as a woman. They joke with Sam who sings "The Mandalay Song".
The Fly's voice comes over the radio and gives the gang their instructions. Bill will be in charge of grabbing the money. As the gang leaves, Lilian enters. She is disappointed Bill has gone back to his life of crime ("Surabaya Johnny").
Bill cries at her song but says he's still tough ("Big Shot Reprise"). The Fly comes in disguised as a newsboy. Bill recognises her and realises he's almost missed the hold up. He runs out and Lilian storms out behind him.
The gang returns but Bill is nowhere to be found. The Fly puts the hit out on him again. "Take care of him tonight and leave worrying about the money till tomorrow" (The Ballad of the Lily of Hell").
Lilian returns to the Mission and so does Bill. The Major wants nothing to do with either of them. The gang rushes in. Bill shows them he has the money. A cop comes in and the gang offers up the false alibis The Fly had given them. But the cop is there to question Bill about the disappearance of The Governor. The door flies open and The Governor walks in ("Big Shot Reprise 2"). He had only hit his head falling into a shallow part of the canal. Everyone is innocent so the policeman leaves.
Now The Fly comes in, gun drawn. Hannibal shouts "Sadie!" It turns out that he is the Fly's long lost husband ("In our Childhood Reprise"). She gives him the loot which he turns over to the Major. The Major gives Lilian her job back. The Fly steps forward and says the two groups should unite to fight for the poor against the injustices of the rich ("Epilogue: Hosanna Rockefeller"). A drunken Santa Claus appears at an upstairs window and the whole group reprise "The Bilbao Song".
Musical numbers
Prologue – The CompanyAct I
Bill’s Beer Hall, December 22
- The Bilbao Song – The Governor, Baby Face, Bill & The Gang
- Lieutenants of the Lord – Lillian, The Army & The Fold
- March Ahead – The Army & The Fold
- The Sailors’ Tango – Lillian
Act II
The Salvation Army Mission, Canal Street, and the Beer Hall, December 23
- The Sailors’ Tango (Reprise) – Lillian
- Brother, Give Yourself a Shove – The Army & The Fold
- Song of the Big Shot – The Governor
- Don’t Be Afraid – Jane, The Army & The Fold
- In Our Childhood’s Bright Endeavor – Hannibal
- The Liquor Dealer’s Dream – Hannibal, The Governor, Jane, The Army & The Fold
Act III
Scene 1: The Beer Hall, December 24
- The Mandalay Song – Sam & The Gang
- Surabaya Johnny – Lillian
- Song of the Big Shot (Reprise) – Bill
- Ballad of the Lily of Hell – The Fly
Scene 2: The Mission, later that night
- Song of the Big Shot (Reprise) – The Governor & Bill
- In Our Childhood’s Bright Endeavor (Reprise) – Hannibal & The Fly
- Epilogue: Hosanna Rockefeller – The Company
- The Bilbao Song (Reprise) – The Company
Quotation
The phrase "robbing a bank's no crime compared to owning one" derives from this play, though it appeared in an alternate form in the earlier Threepenny Opera.Recordings
Conductor/Lilian/Dame in Grau/Bill/Sam:- Brückner-Rüggeberg/Lenya/Lenya/Lenya/Lenya (1960, orig. on Philips; Lenya sings all songs)
- Atherton/Dickinson/Dickinson/Luxon/Luxon (1975, Deutsche Grammophon; songs in true pitch)
- Latham-König/Ramm/Ploog/Raffeiner/Kimbrough (live in Cologne, 1988, Capriccio)
- Kitsopoulos/Cohn/Mugleston/Macon/Willis (live in San Francisco, 2006, Ghostlight; the American Conservatory TheaterAmerican Conservatory TheaterAmerican Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...
production