The Kurt Weill Edition Series I — Stage Series II — Concert Series III — Screen Series IV — Miscellanea Editorial Board Tim Carter Joel Galand Edward Harsh Stephen Hinton Kim H. Kowalke Giselher Schubert Managing Editor Elmar Juchem Lady in the Dark A Musical Play in Two Acts Book by Moss Hart Music and Lyrics by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin CRITICAL REPORT Series I, Volume 16 Edited by bruce d. mcclung and Elmar Juchem Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. / New York European American Music Corporation / New York Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, New York European American Music Corporation, New York, New York Lady in the Dark Book by Moss Hart; Music and Lyrics by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin This Critical Edition Copyright © 2017 by The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved Published 2017 Printed in Austria by Plöchl Druck GmbH O The paper in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. ISBN 978-1-62721-901-3 CONTENTS List of Sources and Sigla 7 Statement of Source Valuation and Usage 9 Commentary: General Issues 17 Critical Notes 21 Source Descriptions 127 Abbreviations 135 Kurt Weill Edition Personnel 136 Credits and Acknowledgments for this Volume 137 LIST OF SOURCES AND SIGLA SOURCES ADDITIONAL MATERIALS Full Score Format Drafts Fh Holograph full score (1940–41) Dh Holograph drafts and sketches (1940–41) Fh(R) Photostat copy of Fh (before 1948) Fh-misc Three items separated from Fh (1940) Piano-Vocal Format Fm Manuscript full score (1941) VmG Additional piano-vocal score of Glamour Dream (1940; incomplete) Piano-Vocal Format VmT Additional piano-vocal score of refrains for “This Is Vh Holograph piano-vocal score (1940; incomplete) New” (1940) VhP Holograph piano-vocal score of “The Princess of VmP Additional piano-vocal score of “The Princess of Pure Delight” (1940) Pure Delight” (1940) Vm Manuscript piano-vocal score (1940) VeK Copy of Ve annotated by John Kennedy, general Ve Printed piano-vocal score published by Chappell stage manager for the original production (1941?) (1941) Choral Parts Arrangements Cm(R) Manuscript choral part, reproduction (1940) Ae Sheet music for seven extracted songs published by Chappell (1941) Instrumental Parts Im1 Instrumental parts used in original production Text (1940–41; incomplete) Ttb0 Draft versions of book (1940) Im2 Second generation of instrumental parts used in orig- Ttb1 First version of book (1940) inal production (ca. 1942; incomplete) Tty0 Sketches and drafts of lyrics (1940) Im3 Instrumental parts prepared for later productions Tty1 First version of lyrics (1940) (1950s?; incomplete) Tp2 Abridged publication of book and lyrics (1941) Tp3 Reprint of Tp1 (1944) Text Tp4 German-language edition of book and lyrics (1949) Ttb2L Book used by Gertrude Lawrence (1940) Tp5 Acting edition of book and lyrics (1950) Tty2L Lyrics used by Gertrude Lawrence (1940) Tt-misc Sides for Liza Elliott, used by Gertrude Lawrence Correspondence (1940) Lg-w Ira Gershwin to Weill Tt3 Assistant stage manager’s script for original produc- Lw-g Weill to Ira Gershwin tion (1940–41) Ll-w Gertrude Lawrence to Weill Tt4 Production script (1941) Lw-l Weill to Gertrude Lawrence Tp1 Printed book and lyrics published by Random House (1941) Tpy Selected lyrics in Ira Gershwin, Lyrics on Several Oc- Programs casions published by Alfred Knopf (1959) N1–N7 Programs (1940–43) 8 Sources and Sigla Recordings NYPL New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at R1 Three discs recorded by Gertrude Lawrence for Vic- Lincoln Center tor (1941) WLA Weill-Lenya Archive, Irving S. Gilmore Music Li- R2 Three discs recorded by Danny Kaye for Columbia brary, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. (MSS (1941) 30, The Papers of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya) WLRC Weill-Lenya Research Center, New York, N.Y. Interviews Y1–Y11 Interviews with eleven people involved in the origi- nal production PUBLICATIONS Miscellaneous W-Fam Weill, Kurt. Briefe an die Familie, 1914–1950. Ed- M1 Vandamm Studio photographs of original produc- ited by Lys Symonette and Elmar Juchem. Stutt- tion gart and Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2000. M2 Gertrude Lawrence scrapbooks W-LL(e) Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt M3 Weill’s press clippings Weill and Lotte Lenya. Edited and translated by Lys Symonette and Kim H. Kowalke. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, INSTITUTIONS 1996. WPD(e) Farneth, David, with Elmar Juchem and Dave Stein. GC George and Ira Gershwin Collection, Music Divi- Kurt Weill: A Life in Pictures and Documents. sion, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000. STATEMENT OF SOURCE VALUATION AND USAGE General Key Terms This Edition of Lady in the Dark is of necessity synthetic, as no For the purposes of this Edition, a “source” is any document single source transmits all parameters of the work. Moreover, from which a reading is taken or which is used to establish or there are significant discrepancies between those sources that support the musical and verbal text of the Edition. The term more or less accurately reflect the form of the work as it even- “additional materials” refers to all other documents pertaining tually stabilized during the course of the original production to the work’s genesis and early production history and recep- and the two sources published some months after the Broad- tion. way premiere on 23 January 1941, which retained some but not A “privileged source” provides the initial reference for a cer- all of the material cut during rehearsals and the tryout period. tain parameter of the work’s text (e.g., the instrumentation). The two latter sources, published within a week in late April Such a source is the first item consulted for a given parameter, 1941, appear to have been intended for a reading (and perhaps and it is upheld if not contradicted by any other source or if not piano-playing) public and thus represent “literary versions” that in manifest or apparent error. In cases where other sources do were not attuned specifi cally to production concerns such as contradict the privileged source, then the privileged source may running time and the need for incidental music. In preparing be upheld or overruled; in the latter case, the decision, if non- the book for publication by Random House, Moss Hart allowed trivial, is justified in the critical notes. If the privileged source is all sections to appear in print that he himself, as stage director upheld, then that decision is not normally documented unless of the original production’s book scenes, had cut prior to the the variant reading is considered of sufficient interest for users Broadway opening. By contrast, when Kurt Weill and Ira Gersh- of the Edition. Such a variant might furnish a viable alternative, win readied the piano-vocal score for publication by Chappell, for example, or shed light on the work’s genesis. However, it is they acted more selectively and omitted at least some of the pas- not the aim of the Edition to enable the user to document fully sages that had been cut during rehearsals, presumably because or reconstruct every source. General criteria for choosing priv- they considered the cuts to be improvements. But the published ileged sources and for upholding or overruling them, when score, edited by Albert Sirmay, also omitted all incidental music other sources contradict or in cases of error, are given below. required for a staging of the work (such as scene change music, entr’acte, and exit music), some dance routines, and even the Source Overview short but crucial duet version of “My Ship” at the end of the For much of the genesis and the rehearsal period, the text play. As none of the authors ever made a genuine effort to ease sources circulated as separate documents: one for Hart’s book the considerable tension between the “scripts” that had proven and one for Gershwin’s lyrics. Two drafts of “I Am Listening,” so viable onstage and these literary versions that had no need to now bound together as volume 40 of Hart’s personal library take production matters into account, this Edition seeks a mid- (Ttb0), offer insights into how and where the playwright wrote dle ground by establishing a Main Text that is designed to be the book. He used two typewriters, an “elite” (twelve characters performable, informed by the original production but slightly to an inch), which he employed at Fairview Farm for his type- longer. With the help of footnotes to the score and placement written correspondence, and a “pica” (ten characters to an inch), of certain numbers (or passages) in the Appendix or in the crit- which he used at his Manhattan townhouse. Gershwin’s lyric ical notes, the Edition offers alternatives that would result in a sketches and drafts (collectively Tty0) document his work well shorter running time. As mandated by the Kurt Weill Edition, into the fall of 1940. Filed with Gershwin’s materials are sce- the remaining Appendix items are performable as well, but they narios for the Wedding, the Circus, and the Hollywood preserve material that the authors seem to have cut or replaced Dreams, which Hart had typed up to summarize his discussions for good reason. with Weill and Gershwin. 10 Source Valuation and Usage Whenever a text had reached a stage that merited distribu- uncut, pre-rehearsal form (as they appear in Ttb2), but the lyrics tion to other team members, producer Sam H. Harris engaged omit the cut numbers “It’s Never Too Late to Mendelssohn and a typing service, the Rialto Service Bureau, to prepare a type- “Bats About You.” All subsequent publications of the script— script with multiple carbon copies.