LoveMusik
Encyclopedia
LoveMusik is a musical
written by Alfred Uhry
, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill
. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill
and Lotte Lenya
, based on Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, edited and translated by Lys Symonette & Kim H. Kowalke. Harold Prince had read Speak Low and suggested the idea for a musical to Uhry. Uhry and Prince worked on LoveMusik for four years to develop it into a stage work. The story spans over 25 years, from the first meeting of Lenya and Weill as struggling young artists, to their popularity in Europe and America, to Weill's death from a heart attack at age 50.
The musical was produced on Broadway
as a limited run production by the Manhattan Theatre Club
beginning previews on April 12, 2007, opening on May 3, 2007, and closing on June 24, 2007. The show was directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by Patricia Birch
and starred Michael Cerveris
as Kurt Weill
, Donna Murphy
as Lotte Lenya
, David Pittu
as Bertolt Brecht
and John Scherer as George Davis. The ensemble included Judith Blazer, Edwin Cahill, Herndon Lackey, Erik Liberman, Ann Morrison
, Graham Rowat, Rachel Ulanet and Jessica Wright.
It got mixed to ecstatic reviews. It was noted for its performances of Donna Murphy & Michael Cerveris
In 1924, Weill is visiting a friend in Europe, and Lenya is sent to meet him. They are immediately attracted to each other and their subsequent romance and marriage follow the course of events in pre-World War II
Germany. Weill collaborates with Bertolt Brecht
, and the two write The Threepenny Opera
, among other important works. But Brecht's ego and politics cause a rift, and the two part. Weill and Lenya divorce and later remarry. As the Jewish Weill becomes a popular and successful composer, Weill and Lenya are forced to leave Germany.
Act II
Now in the United States, Weill has successful musicals produced on Broadway, such as Lady in the Dark
, and also spends time in California. The couple have an open marriage
– both have other romantic interests; and Weill is a workaholic. But they remain with each other until his death in 1950. Lenya, although devastated at his loss, is urged to return to the stage in Weill's The Threepenny Opera.
The musical uses songs written by Weill for stage musicals such as One Touch of Venus
, The Threepenny Opera
, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
, Street Scene
, Knickerbocker Holiday
, and Happy End
, as well as individual songs.
, Berlin
, Budapest
, Haifa
, Madrid
, as well as a planned production in London
's West End
.
A production translated into Spanish, has been confirmed for Buenos Aires.
Act II
).
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...
written by Alfred Uhry
Alfred Uhry
Alfred Fox Uhry is an American playwright, screenwriter, and member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He is one of very few writers to receive an Academy Award, Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing....
, using a selection of music 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...
. The story explores the romance and lives of 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...
and Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
, based on Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, edited and translated by Lys Symonette & Kim H. Kowalke. Harold Prince had read Speak Low and suggested the idea for a musical to Uhry. Uhry and Prince worked on LoveMusik for four years to develop it into a stage work. The story spans over 25 years, from the first meeting of Lenya and Weill as struggling young artists, to their popularity in Europe and America, to Weill's death from a heart attack at age 50.
The musical was produced 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...
as a limited run production by the Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club is a theater company located in New York City. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most acclaimed...
beginning previews on April 12, 2007, opening on May 3, 2007, and closing on June 24, 2007. The show was directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by 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 starred Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris is an American singer, guitarist and actor. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including in several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, and Passion...
as 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...
, Donna Murphy
Donna Murphy
Donna Murphy is an American stage, film, television actress and singer.Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens...
as Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
, David Pittu
David Pittu
David Pittu is a versatile American actor known primarily for his work in the theater.-Career:Pittu who is of Romanian descent grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut and graduated from New York University in 1989. He is also a writer and director, and member of the Atlantic Theater Company...
as 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...
and John Scherer as George Davis. The ensemble included Judith Blazer, Edwin Cahill, Herndon Lackey, Erik Liberman, Ann Morrison
Ann Morrison
Ann Morrison is an American actress, best known for her Broadway debut as Mary Flynn in the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical, Merrily We Roll Along directed by Harold Prince for which she won the 1982 Theatre World Award...
, Graham Rowat, Rachel Ulanet and Jessica Wright.
It got mixed to ecstatic reviews. It was noted for its performances of Donna Murphy & Michael Cerveris
Plot synopsis
Act IIn 1924, Weill is visiting a friend in Europe, and Lenya is sent to meet him. They are immediately attracted to each other and their subsequent romance and marriage follow the course of events in pre-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Germany. Weill collaborates with 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...
, and the two write The Threepenny Opera
The 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...
, among other important works. But Brecht's ego and politics cause a rift, and the two part. Weill and Lenya divorce and later remarry. As the Jewish Weill becomes a popular and successful composer, Weill and Lenya are forced to leave Germany.
Act II
Now in the United States, Weill has successful musicals produced on Broadway, such as Lady in the Dark
Lady in the Dark
Lady in the Dark is a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart. It was produced by Sam Harris. The protagonist, Liza Elliott, is the unhappy female editor of a fashion magazine, Allure, who is undergoing psychoanalysis...
, and also spends time in California. The couple have an open marriage
Open marriage
Open marriage typically refers to a marriage in which the partners agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual relationships, without this being regarded as infidelity. There are many different styles of open marriage, with the partners having varying levels of input on their spouse's...
– both have other romantic interests; and Weill is a workaholic. But they remain with each other until his death in 1950. Lenya, although devastated at his loss, is urged to return to the stage in Weill's The Threepenny Opera.
The musical uses songs written by Weill for stage musicals such as One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus is a musical with music written by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, and book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, based on the novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion myth. The show satirizes contemporary American suburban values,...
, The Threepenny Opera
The 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...
, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a political-satirical opera composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was first performed in Leipzig on 9 March 1930.-Composition history:...
, Street Scene
Street Scene (opera)
Street Scene is a Broadway musical or, more precisely, an "American opera" by Kurt Weill , Langston Hughes , and Elmer Rice...
, Knickerbocker Holiday
Knickerbocker Holiday
Knickerbocker Holiday is a musical written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson ; it was directed by Joshua Logan. Among the songs introduced was the "September Song", now considered a pop standard.- History :...
, and Happy End
Happy End (musical)
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...
, as well as individual songs.
Japanese production
A production of 'Lovemusik' has been confirmed for Japan for the 2009-2010 Japanese theatre season. This production will be translated entirely into Japanese. Masachika Ichimura has been cast as Kurt Weill in the Japanese production. No other casting or a theatre has been announced.International productions
Productions, translated into their native languages, have been confirmed for Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, as well as a planned production in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
.
A production translated into Spanish, has been confirmed for Buenos Aires.
Musical numbers
Act I- Speak LowSpeak Low"Speak Low" is a popular song composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. It was introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus . The 1944 hit single was by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, with vocal by Billy Leach...
(Lyrics By Ogden Nash) — Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya - Nanna's Lied (Lyrics By Bertolt Brecht) — Woman on Stairs
- Kiddush — Weill's Family
- Songs of the Rhineland (Lyrics By Ira Gershwin) — Lenya's Family
- Klops Lied (Meatball Song) — Kurt Weill
- Berlin Im Licht — Lotte Lenya
- Wooden Wedding (Lyrics By Ogden Nash) — Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Magistrate and Court Secretary
- Tango Ballad (Lyrics By Bertolt Brecht) — Bertolt Brecht and Brecht's Women
- Alabama Song (Lyrics By Bertolt Brecht) — Auditioners and Lotte Lenya
- Girl of the Moment (Lyrics By Ira Gershwin) — Ensemble
- Moritat (Lyrics By Bertolt Brecht) — Bertolt Brecht, Lotte Lenya, Otto and Ensemble
- Schickelgruber (Lyrics By Howard Dietz) — Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht
- Come to Paris (Lyrics By Ira Gershwin) — Ensemble
- I Don't Love You (Lyrics By Maurice Magre) — Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya
- Wouldn't You Like to Be on Broadway (Lyrics By Langston Hughes and Elmer Rice) — Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya
- Alabama Song (Reprise) (Lyrics By Bertolt Brecht) — Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Ensemble
Act II
- How Can You Tell an American (Lyrics By Maxwell Anderson) — Ensemble
- Very, Very, Very (Lyrics By Ogden Nash) — Kurt Weill
- It's Never Too Late to Mendelssohn (Lyrics By Ira Gershwin) — Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Stenographer and Judge
- Surabaya Johnny (Lyrics By Bertolt Brecht) — Lotte Lenya
- Youkali (Lyrics By Roger Fernay) — Bertolt Brecht and Brecht's Women
- Buddy on the Night Shift (Lyrics By Oscar Hammerstein II) — Allen Lake
- That's Him (Lyrics By Ogden Nash) — Kurt Weill
- Hosannah Rockefeller (Lyrics By Bertolt Brecht) — Bertolt Brecht and Brecht's Women
- I Don't Love You (Reprise) (Lyrics By Maurice Magre) — Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weill
- The Illusion Wedding Show (Lyrics By Alan Jay Lerner) — George Davis and Ensemble
- It Never Was You (Lyrics By Maxwell Anderson) — Kurt Weill
- A Bird of Passage (Lyrics By Maxwell Anderson) — Ensemble
- September Song (Lyrics By Maxwell Anderson) — Lotte Lenya and George Davis
Recording
LoveMusik (the world premiere recording) was recorded in July 2007 at Avatar Studios in NYC and was released on November 27, 2007 by Ghostlight Records (an imprint of Sh-K-Boom RecordsSh-K-Boom Records
Sh-K-Boom Records is a record label, a producer of recorded and live entertainment, and an interactive community at www.sh-k-boom.com — all devoted to the mission of bridging the gap between pop music and theater...
).
2007 Tony Award nominations
- Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - (Cerveris)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical - (Murphy)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical - (Pittu)
- Tony Award for Best OrchestrationsTony Award for Best Orchestrations-1990s:1997*Jonathan Tunick – Titanic**Michael Gibson - Steel Pier**Luther Henderson - Play On!**Don Sebesky and Harold Wheeler - The Life1998*William David Brohn – Ragtime**Robert Elhai, David Metzger and Bruce Fowler - The Lion King...
- (Jonathan Tunick)
2007 Drama Desk Award nominations
- Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Musical - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical (WINNER)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography (Patricia Birch)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (Harold Prince)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations (Jonathan Tunick) (WINNER)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design of a Musical
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design