Ilt;t.,_:l I I I • VI""''"'''"' c:!O Artistic Director Execut ive Director Productions Direct or ROBERT KALFIN MICHAEL DAVID BURL HASH And MICHAEL HARVEY Present Ly rics by Bertholt Brecht Music by Kurt Weill Original German Play by Dorothy Lane Book and Lyrics ad apted by Michael Feingold Directed by Michael Posnick Musical Numbers Staged by.. ... ... .. Patricia Birch Scenery Designed by . .. ... .... .. .. Robert U. Taylor Costumes Designed by . .... .. ....... Carrie F. Robbins Lighting Designed by. ..... ... ... Jennifer Tipton Musical Director . Roland Gagnon Film by .. .... ... .... .. .... .. Scott Morris Hair Designs by. Patrik D. Moreton with Tony Azito Shirley Knight Raymond J. Barry Frank Kopyc Alexandra Borrie Christopher Lloyd John A. Coe Tom Mardirosian Donna Emmanuel Martha Miller Joe Grifasi Victor Pappas Bob Gunton David Pursley Grayson Hall Benjamin Rayson Prudence Wright Holmes Liz Sheridan Kristin Jolliff Robert Weil Production Stage Manager . .. ..... .. .. Mark Wright This adaptation was first produced by the Yale Repertory Theater, New Haven, Connecticut, on April6, 1972. THE CAST THE GANG Bill Cracker ....... .... ............ Christopher Lloyd Sam "Mammy" Wurlitzer ... .......... Benjamin Rayson Dr. Nakamura ("The Governor") ... .. ...... ..Tony Azito Jimmy Dexter ("The Reverend") ... ... ...... John A. Coe Bob Marker ("The Professor") . .. ........ Robert Weil Johnny Flint ("Baby Face") . ......... Raymond J. Barry A Lady In Gray ("The Fly") . .............. Grayson Hall Miriam, the barmaid .. ...............Donna Emmanuel THE ARMY Lieutenant Lillian Holiday ("Hallelujah Lil'') . Shirley Knight Major Stone... .. ......... ... .. ......... Liz Sheridan Captain Hannibal Jackson ........ ....... Joe Grifasi Sister Mary .......... ...... .. Prudence Wright Holmes Sister Jane .......................... Alexandra Borrie Brother Ben Owens . ... .. .... ............ Bob Gun ton THE FOLD Kristin Jolliff, Frank Kopyc, Tom Mardirosian Martha Miller, Victor Pappas A Cop .... ... .................... .. David Pursley MUSICAL NUMBERS Prologue Entire Company ACT ONE "The Bilbao Song" Governor, Baby Face, Bill and The Gang "Lieutenants of the Lord" Lillian and The Army "March Ahead" The Army "The Sailors' Tango" Lillian ACT TWO " Brother, Give Yourself a Shove" The Army and The fold "Song of the Big Shot" The Governor "Don't Be Afraid" Jane, The Army and The Fold " In Our Childhood's Bright Endeavor" Hannibal "The Liquor Dealer's Dream" Hannibal, Governor, Jane, The Army and The Fold ACT THREE, SCENE 1 " The Mandalay Song" Sam and The Gang "Surabaya Johnny" Lillian "Song of the Big Shot" -- Reprise Bill "Ballad of the Lily of Hell" The Fly ACT THREE, SCENE 2 "The Happy End"-- Finale Entire Company PLACE: Chicago TIME: December 1915 ACT 1: Bill's Beer Hall. December 22 ACT II: The Salvation Army Mission, Canal St., December 23 ACT III, Scene 1: The Beer Hall. December 24 ACT III, Scene 2: The Mission. Later that night There will be two ten-minute intermissions Musicians: Mark Belair, David Gale, Allan Jaffee, Ronald A. Janelli, Grant (Gus) Keast, Billy Kerr, William Schimmel, Charles Sharman III Understudies: Donna Emmanuel (Sister Jane); Bob Gunton (Bill Cracker); Kristin Jolliff (Miriam, Sister Mary); Tom Mardirosian (Baby Face, The Cop); Martha Miller (Major &one, The Fly); Victor Pappas (Dr. Nakamura, Bob Marker); David Pursley (Sam Wurlitzer, Jimmy Dexter). THE ODD HISTORY OF "HAPPY END" Following the success of THE THREEPENNY OPERA in 1928, the producer, Ernst Joseph Aufricht, was eager to have the new team of Brecht and Weill supply him with a successor. Brecht's secretary, Elisabeth Hauptmann, proposed an American short story she had come across as a suitable source. (Despite many assertions to the contrary, this short story is not Damon Runyon's "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown," which was not published till some years later; the actual source of HAPPY END's plot has never been unearthed.) To avoid charges of plagiarism, the story was ascribed to a nonexistent publication · "The J & L Weekly, St. Louis"· and an imaginary author · "Dorothy Lane." Brecht was credited with the lyrics only, and Hauptmann with "arranging" Dorothy Lane's work for the theatre. In later years both Brecht and Hauptmann resisted acknowledging their authorship of the script: Brecht declared that ST. JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS, which uses the Salvation Army setting and several of Lillian's speeches (including "Lieutenants of the Lord," as a spoken tirade), was "based on Elisabeth Hauptmann's play HAPPY END;" Hauptmann herself, when the German acting version was first published in the 1950s, ascribed the whole thing to "Dorothy Lane." The present version treats Brecht and Hauptmann's work as freely as they must have treated their unknown source. HAPPY END opened at the Theater am Schiffbauerdam early in September, 1929, and might have been a success, but for an unforseen event at its conclusion. Accounts of what happened differ, but the general understanding is that something in The Fly's last speech pro­ voked an outburst from conservative sectors of the audience; the critics the next morning angrily accused Brecht of attempting to provoke a riot; and the public stayed away in droves. We do not know precisely what the provocation was: The speech as it stands in the German text is hardly more startling than any of the sentiments in THREEPENNY -- in fact, its last line is a direct quote from the earlier work. But The Fly was played by Brecht's wife, Helene Weigel, who may be assumed to have had mixed feelings about appearing in a boulevard "hit," and who is thought to have ad Jibbed lines considerably more provocative to the audience than those in the script. Whether this was done under Brecht's instructions, or without his knowledge, we don't know. At any rate, it had its desired effect: HAPPY END becam e a shambles from which Brecht and Weill's superb score has only in recent years been excavated in one piece. In setting off these jewels of songwriting, I have tried to make the script one Brecht might have written had he brought his distin ctive sensibility to America in the 1920s, giving it the shape of our theatre at the time without weakening its astringent tone. The result, I hope, is that a work which has suffered much unnecessary unhappiness will finally reach its intended HAPPY END. Michael Feingold Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950) Born in Dessau Germany, Weill next 15 years, Weill composed for began his musical career as a sym­ the Broadway stage, combining phonic composer, studying with his classical musical heritage with Engelbert Humperdink, and Busoni. the idiom of the American musical His first success was an opera, DER theatre with such successes as PROTAGONIST, in 1926, which KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY convinced him that musical drama (1938), LADY IN THE DARK was his forte. He collaborated (1941), ONE TOUCH OF VENUS with Bertolt Brecht on THE (1943), STREET SCENE (1947) THREEPENNY OPERA (1928), and LOST IN THE STARS (1949 ). THE RISE AND FALL OF THE Weill was married to Lotte Lenya. CITY OF MAHAGONNY (1927- 29), HAPPY END (1929) and THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS (1933). Weill also collab orated with Brecht on the opera DER JASAGER; a ballet score entitled DIE SIEBEN TODSUENDEN, THE BERLINER REQUIEM, incidental music for the 1931 production of MANN 1ST MANN and LIND­ BERGHFLUG, a celebration of Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic solo flight. Many of Weill 's musical scores were destroyed by the Nazis when he fled Germany in 1935 for New York. For the Bertolt Brecht (1898 · 1956) Born in Bavaria, Brecht began HUAC in 1947, Brecht arrived to his career as a dramatist with a testify with a prepared statement series of experimental plays heavily and a plane ticket to Europe where influenced by Expressionistic tech­ he settled in East Berlin and niques. These included BAAL founded the Berliner Ensemble (1918~, JUNGLE IN THE CITIES where the first professional prod­ (1921 and A MAN'S A MAN uction of THE CAUCASIAN (1926 . His first of many collabor­ CHALK CIRCLE in 1954 ations with composer Kurt Weill established Brecht as one of the was THE THREEPENNY OPERA leading figures iri contemporary (1928) followed by HAPPY END theatre. (1929), THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY (1927-29) and THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS (1933). In 1933 Brecht fled Nazi Germany for Scandinavia and the U.S. Between 1937 and 1945, he wrote his most enduring and important dramatic works: THE LIFE OF GALILEO (1938), MOTHER COURAGE (1938-39), THE GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN (1938-41), PUNTILLA (1941) and THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (1943-45). Called before the Tony Azito (The Governor) Raymond J. Barry was last seen on Broadway as (Baby Face) Peachum's Assistant in the New is making his Chelsea debut in York Shakespeare Festival's prod­ HAPPY END. He appeared on uction of THREE PENNY OPERA. Broadway in the Joseph Papp His other Off-Broadway credits presentation of THE LEAF include the La Mama production PEOPLE. At the Public Theatre of C.O.R.F.A.X!, (DON'T ASK), he was seen in Michael Weller's THE COTTON CLUB GALA, and FISHING, Ron Tavel's THE LAST Ben Johnson and Will Leach's CAR­ DAYS OF BRITISH HONDURAS, MILLA. A newcomer to the New Adrienne Kennedy's A MOVIE York cabaret scene, Mr. Azito STAR HAS TO STAR IN BLACK has performed with great success AND WHITE and Georg Buchner's at Reno Sweeney's and Alfredo's WOYZECK. He collaborated with Settebello. He is a student of Anna the Open Theatre in THE SER­ Sokolow and as a member of her PENT, MASQUES, TERMINAL, Player's Project appeared at the MUTATIONS and NIGHTWALK Harvard University Experimental and appeared in the Living Theatre Theatre and for the Repertory production of THE BRIG. On film Theater of Lincoln Center at the he was Herbert Fisk in Joan Micklin Forum. Silver's BETWEEN THE LINES. Alexandra Borrie (Sister Jane) John A. Coe (The Reverend) appeared as Cleo in the Pittsburgh was first seen by Chelsea audiences Civic Light Opera production of as Uncle Sam in JUNEBUG GRAD­ THE MOST HAPPY FELLA this UATES TONIGHT, and then in past summer, after which she star­ Genet's THE SCREENS.