For a little Weill...get Lost in the Stars

[skynyc]

Interesting this sudden flux of revivals of Kurt Weill. But tonight was the first performance of this 1949 musical tragedy and it plays through the weekend.

I strongly recommend it. Perhaps I enjoyed it as much as I did because my expectations were very low. It is one of the few cast albums (yes, LPs) that I don't think I ever listened to the second side. Perhaps I wasn't sophisticated enough to appreciate Weill at that point. I went half expecting to leave at intermission.

But I didn't even get up to stretch my legs. Based on the novel Cry the Beloved Country, Chuck Cooper is just terrific as the South African Preacher struggling with his faith as he lives through his son's crime and trial. He imbues the role with strength, conflict and pathos which reached me in the last row of the rear mezzanine.

And Quentin Earl Darrington (who played Coalhouse Walker in the recent revival of Ragtime) was terrific as the "Leader", heading up a strong-voiced "Greek" chorus of about twenty. The strong atmospheric choral pieces are intertwined with lovely character songs sung by Cooper and Sherry Boone as his daughter-in-law, among others.

And in a little Broadway foreshadowing, Patina Miller, who will play the Whoopi Goldberg role in the upcoming musical version of Sister Act rocked the house in one of the few uptempo numbers, Who'll Buy?

This provides exactly what the Encores series originally intended: the opportunity to see first-class productions of rarely done pieces of American Musical history.

(Tickets for this weekend are still available on tdf.)

[Guest greatness]

That is very well said. I think a powerful performance by an actor who becomes one with the character he is playing can touch everyone's heart how far, rich, poor, sad, happy, educated and etc. That is an amazing thing.

 

He imbues the role with strength, conflict and pathos which reached me in the last row of the rear mezzanine.

[Doe Be Doe]

I saw this Friday night and yuck. I hated the music. It was just terrible - except for "Lost in the Stars." I read the book years ago and forgot how sad it is. It seemed like Weil was trying too hard to make a point with the score. Most everyone in my section was looking at their watches and some left early. I was very surprised to see a standing ovation from many there. All that said, the actor who played the lead role, the minister, was terrific as were several of the other cast members. Not a total waste of a Friday evening, but I would not see it again.

[edjames]

I saw it Sunday evening. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought I'd be bolting at intermission but I, too, stayed for the entire performance. Not the greatest musical but it had certain musical elements in the score that were very pleasing. The story was interesteing and the cast was very good. This is exactly the type of show Encores! was designed for and it lived up to it's promise.

 

ED