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Home , Dodsworth (play), Knickerbocker Holiday, Lost in the Stars, Maxwell Anderson

Volume 28 Number 2 Newsletter Fall 2010 Volume 28 Kurt Weill Number 2 Newsletter Fall 2010

In this issue ISSN 0899-6407 © 2010 Kurt Weill Foundation for Music 7 East 20th Street Note from the Editor 3 New York, NY 10003-1106 tel. (212) 505-5240 Features fax (212) 353-9663

Musical Alchemists: Published twice a year, the Kurt Weill Newsletter features articles Weill and Anderson as Collaborators 4 and reviews (books, performances, recordings) that center on Kurt Elmar Juchem Weill but take a broader look at issues of twentieth-century music and theater. With a print run of 5,000 copies, the Newsletter is dis- Lenya’s Later Life: tributed worldwide. Subscriptions are free. The editor welcomes A New Correspondence Collection 11 the submission of articles, reviews, and news items for inclusion in future issues. Recordings A variety of opinions are expressed in the Newsletter; they do not necessarily represent the publisher's official viewpoint. Letters to Das Berliner Requiem, Vom Tod im Wald on Glossa 13 the editor are welcome. Susanne Schaal-Gotthardt Staff Books Elmar Juchem, Editor Carolyn Weber, Associate Editor Dave Stein, Associate Editor Brady Sansone, Production Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater 14 Kate Chisholm, Staff Reporter by Larry Stempel Tim Carter Kurt Weill Foundation Trustees Performances Kim Kowalke, President Philip Getter, Senior Vice President and Treasurer at the Shaw Festival 15 Guy Stern, Vice President Michael Lasser Edward Harsh, Secretary in Bremerhaven 17 Jan-Hendrik von Stemm André Bishop Susan Feder Joanne Hubbard Cossa Walter Hinderer Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in Madrid 18 Paul Epstein Welz Kauffman Roberto Herrscher

Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in Munich 21 Teresa Stratas, Honorary Trustee Julia Zupancic Milton Coleman, Harold Prince, Julius Rudel, Trustees Emeriti

Zaubernacht in Stuttgart 22 Internet Resources Horst Koegler World Wide Web: http://www.kwf.org E-mail: Topical Weill 1a–8a Information: [email protected] Weill-Lenya Research Center: [email protected] Kurt Weill Edition: [email protected]

Cover photo: Weill and taking a break from rehearsals (1949). Photo: Hugelmeyer Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 28, Number 2 3

Note from the Editor

Mark your calendars: On 25–26 January and 3–6 February 2011 in New York City you will have a chance to hear the two stage works that Weill created with Maxwell Anderson, and Lost in the Stars. The former is a “musical comedy” from 1938 that introduced the famous “,” the latter a “musical tragedy” from 1949 that turned the very notion of musical comedy on its head. The proximity of these two upcoming events— both imaginatively conceived, semi-staged productions by prestigious New York orga- nizations—seems like a rare alignment of the stars that has attracted stellar performers and creative teams (for detailed information see “Topical Weill,” p. 1a). This prospect is more than enough reason to train the spot- light of this issue of the Newsletter on the collaboration of Weill and Anderson, which greatly enriched the legacy of the American musical theater and beyond. A newly acquired trove of Lenya corre- spondence represents an important addition to the Weill-Lenya Research Center. Excerpts from these colorful letters can be found on pp. 11–12. The review section con- tains a report about a performance of Weill’s first stage work, the children’s pantomime Zaubernacht, not seen and heard in its origi- nal form since 1925. Many more reviews round out the issue, most notably a report on a much heralded production of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in Madrid, which will be released on DVD.

Elmar Juchem

Original playbill covers from the Weill-Anderson collaborations Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Lost in the Stars (1949). 4 Volume 28, Number 2 Kurt Weill Newsletter

Musical Alchemists

Weill and Anderson as Collaborators

by Elmar Juchem

The Baptist minister’s son spoke at a memo- that publicist Helen Deutsch introduced a small artists’ enclave west of the Hudson, rial for the Jewish cantor’s son: “How great Weill and Anderson at a party given in con- about thirty miles north of Manhattan. That Kurt Weill was as a composer of music the nection with Anderson’s celebrated play summer Anderson was busy getting not one world will slowly discover—for he was a Winterset, which had opened in September but three plays ready for Broadway (The much greater musician than anyone now 1935 (two weeks after Weill and Lenya had Wingless Victory, , and The Masque imagines. It takes decades and scores of arrived from ). Deutsch acted as of Kings), yet there was much talk and years and centuries to sift these things out, press representative for Winterset and press enthusiasm about a possible collaboration. but it’s done in time—and Kurt Weill will agent for the Group Theatre, which made Lenya sang two of Weill’s songs for the play- emerge as one of the very few who wrote her a well-positioned matchmaker as Weill wright. great music.” Maxwell Anderson, the eulo- had begun to work with the Group by The composer, of course, already boast- gist, took comfort in saying these words. He January 1936. Nobody knows what the com- ed an impressive record of luring esteemed was looking back at a friendship of fourteen poser and the playwright talked about dur- playwrights into the world of musical the- years, a time during which he and Weill had ing their first encounter, but a likely topic ater. Having long criticized the thematically spent countless hours together, discussing may have been Anderson’s What Price Glory pointless, dramaturgically bewildering plays, books, music, radio, film, and early (1924), the film version of which Weill had librettos of operas composed in the wake of television, the state of the theater, and often seen in 1927 in and praised in a letter Richard Wagner, and showing little interest the state of the world. Given the intensity to Lenya as “exhilarating because of its paci- in escapist operetta, Weill had the vision of and longevity of their association, their col- fist stance and its artistic realization.” In collaborating with first-rate dramatists laborative output seems almost meager. 1929 Carl Zuckmayer’s German-language rather than second-rate librettists, and he They completed just two shows for adaptation of the hit play was in need of preferred poets over tried-and-true lyricists. Broadway and were in the midst of writing incidental music. Erwin Piscator headed the Both Georg Kaiser and Bert Brecht, another when Weill died. production team, which included several Germany’s foremost playwrights in the Unlike Eugene O’Neill and Arthur familiar faces from Weill’s Berlin orbit, 1920s, had been novices in the musical the- Miller, Anderson is hardly a household among them Caspar Neher, Ernst Busch, ater when Weill approached them. One can name today, yet he is the missing link and Maria Bard. Piscator had succeeded a easily imagine that Weill used these first between the two. Woody Allen did his year earlier in securing Weill’s services for encounters with Anderson to hint at the homework for Bullets over Broadway (1995), incidental music (for Leo Lania’s play broad range of possibilities for music in the where a blasé actress who had seen better Konjunktur), but this time it was Walter theater. days (played by Dianne Wiest) repeatedly Goehr who would provide the incidental And Weill didn’t give up easily. When he stated something to the effect that she music (oddly enough—or not—Goehr had saw Anderson’s The Star-Wagon in October would consider scripts only by Eugene conducted incidental music by Weill for a 1937, he sent the playwright a note praising O’Neill or Maxwell Anderson. Indeed, production of Strindberg’s Gustav III in his handling of reality and fantasy, “so that Anderson (1888–1959) was the most prolif- 1927). Anderson, in turn, could have seen we don’t know any more, where the one ic and feted American playwright in the Weill’s Threepenny Opera, either the ill-fated starts and the other ends.” The same kind of 1930s and 40s, a period during which twen- 1933 run on Broadway—with Burgess mélange had played a crucial role in an ear- ty of his plays appeared on Broadway (that’s Meredith in the cast—or the film version lier work of Weill’s, Der Silbersee (1933), one a year), featuring such actors as Helen that had opened in New York’s Warner written in collaboration with Kaiser. Given Hayes, , , Theater in May 1931. At least some of the the good notices the work had received from , and . The music must have been familiar, as the few still independent papers, it is not plays won a Pulitzer Prize and Drama Anderson’s oldest son, Quentin, professed surprising that Weill considered it a candi- Critics’ Circle Awards, and about half of to owning a record with Weill’s music, play- date for an American adaptation, as small them were adapted for the silver screen, ing it rather too frequently for the taste of penciled notes attest; scribbled next to Der where luminaries such as , Bette his mother (she died in 1931). Silbersee was the name of a possible adaptor: Davis, , Edward G. An opportunity to intensify the contact “Maxwell Anderson.” Robinson, or took over. came in June 1936, when Deutsch drove Neither a musical version of The Star- The precise date of the first encounter Weill and Lenya to Anderson’s house in the Wagon nor an adaptation of Der Silbersee between composer and playwright is country. Anderson and his second wife, ever came to fruition, but in the spring of unknown. Lotte Lenya recalled much later Mab, lived in New City, N.Y., a hamlet with 1938 an idea finally clicked. When Weill Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 28, Number 2 5

spent a weekend in the country, Anderson sought to gain more artistic freedom by sev- proposed the idea of adapting Washington ering ties with their longtime producers. Irving’s satirical History of New York—with Anderson’s first work to reach Broadway the clunky subtitle From the Beginning of the under the auspices of the Playwrights’ World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty—as a Company turned out to be his collaboration musical comedy. Published in 1809 under with Weill: Knickerbocker Holiday. the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker, When Weill returned to the East Coast at Irving’s book focused on the last three the end of May, he was somewhat surprised Dutch governors of New Amsterdam and to find a completed draft libretto. Ever since ridiculed the politics of Thomas Jefferson in his first opera, (1924/25), he the figure of William Kieft. Anderson, on had made a point of collaborating early in the other hand, wanted to use the figure of the process with his librettists or book writ- to target recent develop- ers, so musical considerations could guide ments of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. and shape the work. It was a delicate Although Anderson had welcomed the elec- process, of course, as the famous writers tion of FDR in 1932, he had grown weary of would not easily accept a de facto co-play- the long line of government interventions wright at their side, and Weill had to use all and was alarmed by the “packing” of the his considerable diplomatic skill to get his Court, FDR’s attempt to reorganize the points across. With the exceptions of Franz Maxwell Anderson in 1935. Supreme Court shortly after the beginning Werfel and Jacques Deval, who proved near- of his second term in 1937. For Anderson, it ly deaf to Weill’s suggestions, the play- was a matter of principle. He saw the expan- wrights usually learned to appreciate the sion of presidential powers as a potential composer’s contributions (it probably threat to democracy and to individual free- helped that Weill never demanded credit as dom—the negative examples were clearly coauthor of the text). Even Brecht admitted visible in Europe, where Mussolini and in a personal note scribbled into his daily log Hitler ruled their countries with an iron fist. in 1943, “er besitzt ein gutes dramaturgi - Weill surely understood the espousal of sches Urteil” (he has good dramaturgical these Thoreauvian views, but, having barely judgment). Yet, defying musical comedy’s slipped out of Nazi Germany, it is clear that traditional division of labor by writing out he saw Roosevelt in a far more positive light dialogue and lyrics in one stretch, Anderson and thus tried to steer their project more had worked swiftly in Weill’s absence. Since toward a warning against totalitarianism in the composer was not around to advise, the general. With the political points left to be playwright appears to have used Gilbert & fine-tuned, during that weekend in the Sullivan’s The Mikado as a guide for place- country Weill and Anderson seem to have ment of musical numbers. But he waited to agreed on a principal constellation for their submit the script to his fellow playwright- story, with Stuyvesant as a villainous colo- producers until his collaborator could weigh nial governor, Mynheer Tienhoven as a cor- in. Weill sublet his apartment in Manhattan rupt capitalist and city councillor, and a and rented a little house about five miles First edition of the sheet music. young rebel hero named Brom Broeck who from Anderson’s, so that the two could dis- cannot take orders, which made him the first cuss matters daily and in person. Contrary true American. Thrown into this triangle to the playwright’s reputation of “refusing was the role of Tina Tienhoven, the council- to change even a comma of his work”—at man’s daughter who loves Brom but is least according to the ’s promised to the older Stuyvesant. Lawrence Langner—Anderson was quite In mid-April 1938 Weill headed out to happy to accept the composer’s suggestions Hollywood, where he had to complete work for revision. The most “Gilbertian” num- on Fritz Lang’s You and Me. Around the bers were dropped, and several new num- same time, Anderson had his hands full with bers written and embedded, among them a bold new venture. He and four other top the romantic duet “It Never Was You” (sung playwrights—S. N. Behrman, Sidney How - famously by Judy Garland in her final film) ard, , and Robert Sherwood— and the mildly absurd “Will You Remember had grown dissatisfied with the producing Me?” which mocked the traditional operetta organizations on Broadway, including the love duet with such lines as “Oh, love, will Theatre Guild, and thus announced in you keep me in mind? . . . When the worms March 1938 that they would form their own on my corse have dined.” producing entity, called The Playwrights’ When , fresh from his suc- Company. This was a stunning move at the cess with Rodgers and Hart’s I Married an time, in that a group not of young rebel Angel, came aboard as director, more artists but of five established dramatists changes were made. It may have been Logan Weill in 1937 during his first visit to Hollywood. 6 Volume 28, Number 2 Kurt Weill Newsletter

who advised Weill and Anderson to include Anderson’s intended critique of overzealous wright colleagues were all Roosevelt sup- a few musical numbers in popular song New Dealers grew more incompatible with porters to some degree, with Robert form. One such addition was a custom-tai- the worsening conditions in Europe. Weill Sherwood moonlighting as a speech writer lored composition for the show’s star, Walter seems to have sensitized Anderson to the for FDR in Washington and Elmer Rice a Huston (the father of and situation in Germany, as some line changes committed leftist. Huston had been a per- grandfather of Angelica), who had been cast suggest. For instance, in Stuyvesant’s first sonal friend of FDR’s for some time. for the part of Stuyvesant. Before compos- number, “One Touch of Alchemy,” partly On 24 September the show had a single ing a song for the famous actor, Weill want- repeated in the Act I finale “All Hail the tryout performance in hurricane-flooded ed to know his singing range. Huston cabled Political Honeymoon,” the refrain: Hartford and then went on to Boston. Given back from California, “No range whatsoev- the many changes on the road, the er,” but added that he would soon appear on Then hail the political honeymoon Playwrights added another set of tryouts in Bing Crosby’s weekly radio show and sing And the honeymoon of time, Washington, D.C. On the last night there an something. Weill and Anderson listened to To each individual man his boon unexpected visitor showed up: Franklin D. the radio and went to work. Anderson craft- In a plenitude sublime! Roosevelt himself. The event received ed a lyric for a love song that avoids the word extensive news coverage, because the “love” altogether, and he revised the text’s became President had attended the theater only structure when it was clear that his first twice during his presidency (Rachel draft did not conform to the conventions of Then hail the political honeymoon Crothers’s When Ladies Meet in 1933 and the popular song form. For his musical set- Sing the news to hoi polloi, ’s , with Walter ting, Weill decided to reuse the opening Of each individual man his boon Huston, in 1935). Roosevelt appears to have measures of an arietta he had composed for In an age of strength through joy! thoroughly enjoyed the performance, taking in 1934. The song blurs its it all in with good humor. Anderson, on the tonal center while oscillating between major The proclamation of an “age of strength other hand, could not stomach the idea of and minor mode. Few people would have through joy” was a reference to the Nazi accepting the President’s invitation to the predicted that “September Song” would organization Kraft durch Freude (KdF), White House after the performance, and become Weill’s biggest hit during his life- which was familiar to American audiences Weill did not attend either, possibly out of time (he did not live to see “Moritat” turn through news coverage of the 1936 solidarity with his new friend. into “”). Olympics in Berlin. Anderson had to fight The opening of Knickerbocker Holiday Meanwhile, the show’s political aspects to keep at least a few pointed references to on 19 October 1938 at the Ethel Barrymore had become somewhat complicated, because the “Second Term” sins, because his play- Theatre had been greatly anticipated, as

Rehearsing in 1938: Weill at the piano, with , Jeanne Madden, and Maxwell Anderson. Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 28, Number 2 7

people were curious to see how Anderson aware that a calamity of staggering propor- could possibly write a musical comedy and tions has befallen the peoples of Europe.” September Song how Walter Huston would sing and on Anderson concluded his speech by saying 30 selected recordings a peg leg. Observers noted the oddity that that democracies may have to prepare to Weill had created his own orchestrations and defend themselves, even if it meant a tempo- that a former conductor of the Metropolitan rary infringement of individual liberties. Contrary to many accounts, Opera, Maurice Abravanel, was to lead the Weill’s voice was conspicuously absent in “September Song” was not an instant orchestra. Critics lauded the work in gener- the media during the creation and the run of hit, even though audiences requested al, praised Anderson’s eloquent lyrics, and Knickerbocker Holiday, given that interviews encores from Walter Huston in the the- noted the exceptional quality and variety of with him had appeared in conjunction with ater, and Anderson wrote a third stro- Weill’s music. But several critics were miffed (1936) and phe for this purpose. Four recordings by Anderson’s analogies between fascism (1937). Perhaps he was happy to grant his appeared during the show’s run, but and the New Deal. Perhaps the play’s explic- more famous collaborator the lion’s share of they achieved only a modest measure of it references to elements of both Roosevelt’s the limelight, or perhaps he was preoccupied popularity. When the film version and Hitler’s politics undercut the general by the events in Germany (his immediate (1944), starring and message about the dangers of governmental family had left by July 1938, but many , played in theaters, Bing power. In particular, the reviewer for the friends and former colleagues hadn’t). It was Crosby and Artie Shaw recorded communist-affiliated New Masses was riled clear, though, that Anderson and Weill were “September Song,” but their discs did by her experience in the theater (but turned quite pleased with the outcome of their pro- not become best sellers either. Only in out to have a feel for picking a hit song): ject. Anderson loved his new outlet for poet- 1946 did the song achieve hit status. A ry—he later confessed “all I enjoy about a second surge of recordings was set off I think calling the New Deal fascist is a musical is the lyrics”—and the two artists by the film (1950), poor sort of joke, and I consider labeling seem to have shared a similar, somewhat which made effective use of the song. Roosevelt the American Hitler a vicious Schilleresque view about the theater in gen- perversion. Mr. Anderson is too clever to eral. In his preface to the printed libretto, Walter Huston (1938) damn the New Deal by calling it Red. Anderson handed Weill a huge compliment: Bing Crosby (1944) Instead he has his Peter Stuyvesant para- “Knickerbocker Holiday was obviously writ- phrase Roosevelt, even to the “my Artie Shaw (1945) ten to make an occasion for Kurt Weill’s friends”—and then call in Storm Phil Moore Four (1946) music and . . . Mr. Weill responded by writ- Troopers. Knickerbocker Holiday is no Dardanelle Trio (1946) crude, slambang attack on progressive ing the best score in the history of our the- America. Mr. Anderson makes his points atre.” Weill replied privately, presenting his (1946) by indirection. His lyrics are suave. His autograph draft score to “Mab and Max as a Don Byas Quartet (1946) jokes are disarming up to the stinger on token of my undying affection.” Teddy Wilson w/Sarah Vaughan (1946) the end. . . . It seems a shame to have to While their first collaboration was still Jo Stafford (1946) add to this review the words, “With Music playing on Broadway (it ran until 11 March by Kurt Weill.” And Mr. Weill’s score for 1939 and then went out on a nine-week Django Reinhardt (1947) Knickerbocker Holiday is delightful. Many tour), Anderson and Weill initiated a new Harry James (1947) of the songs are hauntingly beautiful, and project in January during a vacation in one at least, “September Song,” will sure- Erroll Garner (1949) southern Florida, where they were accompa- ly become a classic. Mr. Weill shows a new Sidney Bechet’s Circle Seven (1949) nied by their wives. The project they devel- power in Knickerbocker Holiday, and a new Red Norvo Trio (1950) variety of expression. I think it is nothing oped in the course of that year would never Dave Brubeck Trio (1950) short of a catastrophe that this Kurt Weill reach the stage, but four musical numbers music should illuminate Mr. Anderson’s surfaced a decade later in Lost in the Stars, Stan Kenton (1951) book. including the song that would give that show Art Tatum (1953) its title. Anderson had described the new Liberace (1953) Anderson tried to clarify his point of project’s premise as “essentially the story of Chet Baker (1958) view by publishing a “Brief Preface to the a man in a chaotic world in search of his own Politics of ‘Knickerbocker Holiday’ ” in the manhood and his rules of conduct.” Ella Fitzgerald (1960) New York Times. But the bickering about the Anderson and Weill wanted to flesh out an Jimmy Durante (1963) play’s politics ended three weeks after the epistolary novelette by the southern writer Benny Goodman Quartet (1963) opening, when the Nazis staged the anti- Harry Stillwell Edwards, Eneas Africanus James Brown (1969) Semitic pogroms infamously known as (1919), for the great bass-baritone/actor/ “Kristallnacht.” The Playwrights’ Company activist Paul Robeson. When he declined the Dizzy Gillespie (1974) acted immediately and announced a benefit title role of an ex-slave (Anderson had made Willie Nelson (1978) performance of Knickerbocker Holiday for the mistake of enclosing the novelette, which Lou Reed (1985) German refugees, where Anderson gave a reeked of an “Uncle Tom” tone), the authors A. Réaux, NY Phil. w/K. Masur (1993) curtain speech on 20 November: “It’s a little approached Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who Elaine Paige (1996) embarrassing to interrupt a lighthearted initially expressed lively interest in the pro- travesty of dictatorship with a reference to a ject. Thus Weill and Anderson custom-tai- Bryan Ferry (1999) real dictatorship which is no joke to any of lored their musical to Robinson’s famous Dee Dee Bridgewater (2002) us. There is no one here tonight who is not dancing skills. This time they worked 8 Volume 28, Number 2 Kurt Weill Newsletter

together from the start. Weill joined bass, baritone, a large mixed chorus, and Anderson for ten weeks on the West Coast, orchestra. A surviving archival recording where the playwright tended to his film shows that the broadcast of the fourteen- work. Initial reports about the script, enti- minute cantata used special sound effects tled Africanus, and the music were (galloping hooves, etc.) to heighten the dra- enthusiastic, so the Playwrights’ Company matic impact. hoped to open a production on Broadway in Anderson and Weill then seem to have the fall. In mid-August Weill rushed back to gone their separate ways, yet the opposite New York for the casting, Joshua Logan was was the case. When the spectacular success eager to direct again, but Robinson was not of (1941) earned Weill and immediately available as his current engage- Lenya enough money to buy a house, they ment in a tour added week after week of decided to become neighbors of the performances; worse yet, the heirs of the Andersons in New City, where an old farm- rights to the Edwards story demanded a house was available on South Mountain share of royalties that all but doomed the Road. The path between the two houses project. Then tragedy struck as the compa- became well worn over the years, evenings ny’s Sidney Howard was killed in an acci- were often spent discussing each other’s dent on 23 August, and with the outbreak of projects, the wives frequently joined to offer Piano score published in August 1940. war in Europe a week later the atmosphere their expertise as actors, and there was in New York changed. The project had to be much socializing and cardplaying. After the shelved indefinitely. United States was drawn into the war in The beginning of World War II prompt- December 1941, Weill and Anderson collab- ed a radio series on CBS, where broadcast- orated on a few small projects for the war ing maverick Norman Corwin was commis- effort, including an episode for the radio sioned to create a series called The Pursuit of series “This Is War” (also produced by Happiness. It was supposed to celebrate Norman Corwin) in February 1942 and a “with thankfulness and humility” that few propaganda songs for use in unspecified Americans still enjoyed their “constitution- rallies and events. As neighbors in New al right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of City, they all became members of the U.S. happiness” (which the show’s host, Burgess Army’s Aircraft Warning Service, taking Meredith, paraphrased as “that third their turns watching for enemy aircraft at a inalienable right: the right to chase rain- tower on High Tor, the mountain north of bows”). The series’ most famous program the road that Anderson had made famous featured Earl Robinson and John with his play. LaTouche’s Ballad for Americans, sung by The projects discussed during the 1940s Paul Robeson in November 1939. Anderson offer a fascinating glimpse into the range of and Weill were commissioned to compose a their thinking. In 1941 they considered short cantata to be aired in early February adapting Eugene O’Neill’s The , in 1940. Choosing again a historical subject, 1945 Anderson was Weill’s first choice as Weill and Anderson at the watchtower on High Tor. Anderson made sure that he had an unmis- lyricist for and a serious candi- takable villain at hand this time (unlike date for adapting Die Dreigroschenoper. That Stuyvesant played by the very likeable same year they drafted an outline of an orig- Walter Huston): Thanks to A. A. Milne inal musical for director George Cukor every child knew that King John was not a based on an episode of Joseph Jefferson’s good man, and so Anderson chose the sign- career (the famed nineteenth-century actor ing of the Magna Carta in 1215 to praise one best known for his portrayal of Rip van of the roots of the American liberties. Yet he Winkle), and a year later they worked out a and Weill made some clear allusions to the solid scheme to adapt Sidney Howard’s present situation, as their cantata mentioned They Knew What They Wanted (which the King’s atrocities against Jews and called would turn into The Most “resistance unto tyrants” a universal and Happy Fella ten years later). They also timely duty. Having composed the radio planned to create musical versions of cantata Der Lindberghflug on a text by Anderson’s High Tor (so did Stephen Brecht in 1929, Weill brought some experi- Sondheim, who unsuccessfully approached ence to the table. Anderson’s first draft nar- Anderson in 1951) and The Wingless rated the events at Runnymede in a some- Victory, the latter as an opera featuring the what whimsical ballad of eight strophes, but star baritone Lawrence Tibbett, with whom revisions introduced some dialogue between they signed a preliminary agreement in May the historical characters, so the whole affair 1949. One of the last unrealized projects One of Weill’s many project memos, listing ideas became livelier. Weill set the words for a they discussed was an adaptation of Moby for “Max” at the top. singing narrator (performed by Meredith), Dick for the Metropolitan Opera. Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 28, Number 2 9

By attending each other’s tryouts, Weill Acts.” Given the substantial role of the cho- contextualized: Stephen sings “The Little and Anderson acted as uncredited show rus, Weill decided to score the work for a Gray House” and “Lost in the Stars” to his doctors, and on these occasions the compos- chamber ensemble of twelve players: five little nephew Alex; Irina, Absalom’s girl- er established even closer contacts with the lower strings (i.e., no violins), three wood- friend, naively sings “Stay Well” when it is other members of the Playwrights’ winds, a trumpet, piano (also accordion), clear that he cannot be well; and Stephen’s Company. When S. N. Behrman left the harp, and percussion. , who optimistic and innocent opening number, organization in June 1946, the remaining had sung Porgy in the original 1935 produc- “Thousands of Miles,” soon turns out to three playwrights asked Weill to become an tion of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, was have been naive as well. (For additional official member, a sure sign of their high cast in the role of Stephen Kumalo. Acting information about Lost in the Stars, includ- esteem for the composer’s judgment in all on a suggestion by director Rouben ing many reviews from 1949, see this matters dramatic. Mamoulian (who had staged the 1935 Newsletter, Spring 2008.) Anderson’s Truckline Cafe (1946), which Porgy), Weill and Anderson created more Six days after the opening, Weill strolled gave Marlon Brando his first big role on material for the great baritone, the song over to Anderson’s house and proposed an Broadway, looked like an opportunity to “Thousands of Miles” and the aria “O Tixo, adaptation of Huckleberry Finn as a musical. revive two songs from Ulysses Africanus as Tixo, Help Me!” so the show eventually Anderson was genuinely intrigued by the incidental music, but the numbers were cut became less choral and more dramatic. idea and sat down that very night to refresh before the play opened in New York. The Billed as “a musical tragedy,” the pro- his memory of the novel. In the following previous year, Anderson and Weill had con- duction opened on 30 October 1949. Its days he revisited also Twain’s Life on the sidered other songs from Ulysses for their emotional power caught many theatergoers Mississippi and The Adventures of Tom adaptation of Street Scene (“Lost in the by surprise. One woman stated that “she Sawyer. From mid-November through Stars,” for example, was supposed to con- was made so happily unhappy by Lost in the January they worked intently on a story line, clude Act I, sung by Henry, the janitor). The Stars that she felt like dropping in at Death proposing and rejecting many ideas and ultimate destination for “Lost in the Stars” of a Salesman just to cheer herself up.” Alan struggling with the ending. Mamoulian had came along in December 1947, when Paton, who had arrived from South Africa in already agreed to direct. Anderson began Anderson returned from a trip to Europe time for the premiere, reported that the the actual writing on 25 January 1950 and and encountered Oscar Hammerstein II and audience “wept and shouted and clapped.” handed each completed lyric over to his col- his wife aboard the ship. Dorothy Hammer- Reviews were quite favorable, although not laborator. Weill drafted his first number, stein told Anderson about a novel, soon to ecstatic; some papers felt compelled to send “Come in, Mornin’,” on 13 February. The be published, by the South African author both their drama and music critics—a second one, “River Chanty” (also the pro- . Cry, the Beloved Country telling sign of Weill’s stature and multi- posed title for the entire project), followed (Scribner’s, 1948) made an eloquent indict- faceted style. In the following days news- two days later—it would have been the ment of the recently established apartheid worthy lines began to form in front of the show’s grand opening number. Things got regime by telling the odyssey of a black pas- box office, and it appears that word-of- delayed when they attended the tryout of tor, Stephen Kumalo, whose son, Absalom, mouth in particular boosted ticket sales. Joshua Logan’s The Wisteria Trees in had murdered a white man’s son who hap- This was surprising as many of the Boston. In March Weill suffered from a pened to be a supporter of the black cause. show’s elements proved to be rather intellec- serious case of psoriasis that forced him to Pledging to do no more evil, Absalom con- tual. The existentialist theme of “Lost in the bed. On 16 March he composed the fesses and is sentenced to death. Anderson Stars” is thought-provoking at the very least “Catfish Song,” but coronary pain in the and Weill then tweaked the ending a bit: At (the motif of abandonment by God had following days and a major heart attack on the hour of his execution, Stephen and appeared already in Anderson’s poem “Full- 19 March incapacitated him. He was rushed Jarvis, the white man, meet and begin an Circle,” published in 1920 in the New to a hospital in Manhattan. A week later, he awkward friendship. Although the plot is set Republic, and he elaborated on the topic in began feeling slightly better and Anderson in South Africa, the authors made it clear 1937 in his essay Whatever Hope We Have). brought him more lyrics, which Weill start- that they had finally found a subject that Similarly, Anderson’s probing of the notion ed to draft while lying in bed; he also proof- allowed them to comment on hypocritical of justice in the opening chorus of Act II, read pages for the publication of the piano- segregation policies at home. In spring 1948 “The Wild Justice,” picked up on an earlier vocal score of Lost in the Stars. The last song they secured the rights and completed an fragmentary poem that probably dates from he put on paper was called “This Time Next outline for their adaptation before resuming around 1937. The choral number “A Bird of Year.” On 2 April Weill asked Anderson to projects already begun (Anderson’s Anne of Passage” offered a variation of the medieval bring the completed libretto to the hospital, the Thousand Days and Weill/Alan Lerner’s sparrow-in-the-hall metaphor, and Weill but he did not live to see it: the next day he ). and Anderson contemplated using it as part suffered a second heart attack, this one fatal. Turning Paton’s relentless tragedy into a of a loosely planned “Service for those who Weill’s death was a shock to everybody work for Broadway was a daring endeavor. die without faith except in men.” near him. Anderson wrote in his daily log, Weill and Anderson decided early on to But Weill had made all of this both usually reserved for professional matters: transmute the novel’s descriptive passages accessible and palatable through his gor- “Kurt—of all men!” He spoke a few words into choral ones and to use the chorus in geous settings. Lost in the Stars displays an at Weill’s funeral and it was probably his Greek fashion, much as Weill had done in astonishing musical variety, but there are no idea to engrave a stanza (music and text) of his opera Die Bürgschaft (1932) and also in jarring clashes of idioms. If the four num- “A Bird of Passage” on his friend’s tomb- Der Silbersee. When Anderson finished a bers in popular song form seem simplistic in stone. Over the next fifteen months, first draft of the script in mid-February comparison to some of the choral writing or Anderson felt obliged to finish the incom- 1949, he subtitled it “A Choral Play in Two Stephen’s preghiera, they are each properly plete project. About fifteen composers 10 Volume 28, Number 2 Kurt Weill Newsletter

would approach him with offers to “finish” the musical; he himself explored the notion with Burton Lane, Harry Warren, Arthur Schwartz, Tom Scott, Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser, , Ralph Blane, Victor Young, and Aaron Copland. In the end, however, none of them could replace his friend and collaborator.

For further reading: Anderson, Hesper. South Mountain Road: A Daughter’s Journey of Discovery (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000). Avery, Laurence G. Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson 1912–1958 (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1977). Juchem, Elmar. Kurt Weill und Maxwell Anderson: Neue Wege zu einem amerikanischen Musiktheater (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000). Wharton, John F. Life among the Playwrights: Being Mostly the Story of the Playwrights Producing Company (New York: Quadrangle, 1974). Discussing a project: Anderson over at Lenya and Weill’s house, late 1940s.

Two Letters from Weill to Anderson:

June 22, 1947 July 25, 1947

Dear Max and Mab, Dear Max,

judging from your letter, you really seem to have the . . . I am quite impressed with Bob’s [Sherwood] play which Hollywood blues and I wished you could pack up and come to me, even in its present, rather unfinished form, is way home. The Road is absolutely lovely this year (or it seems so above anything he has done in years. . . . to me after 6 weeks absence)—but it isn’t quite real without As to our plans: I felt in your last letter that your ideas for you around. I got mad when I heard that your contracts the space-ship story [it would have included the song “Lost aren’t signed yet. That’s the worst case of Hollywood trickery in the Stars”—ed.] are moving very definitely in the direc- I’ve ever heard . . . tion of a play rather than a musical, and, of course, as you The flight from London to New York was lovely (7 hours say, you have no control over your imagination and have to across the Atlantic), and coming home to this country had follow where it leads you. I just know that some day we will some of the same emotion as arriving here 12 years ago. With hit again on an idea that cannot be done any other way except all its faults (and partly because of them), this is still the most as a musical, and we will know it when we find it. I hope very decent place to live in, and strangely enough, wherever I much that this will happen because you are my favorite lyric found decency and humanity in the world it reminded me of writer, and it is such a shame to have this wonderful talent of America, because, to me, Americanism is (or ought to be) the yours wasted. I will make myself available for this event if most advanced attempt to fill the gap between the individu- and whenever it will happen—and we will have lots of fun. um and the technical progress. Countries like France and The two show projects that have been suggested to me Italy seem too far removed from this form of Americanism, lately are still very vague. The one, I wrote you, might be which , at the moment, seems to get a little ahead of something for us to work on (it has a wonderful part for us—and I have a suspicion that Russia could become, in this Walter [Huston]), but I won’t bother you with it now, espe- sense, “Americanized”—if we want it. . . . cially since the movie rights are not cleared. The other is an “Joan” is the big thing in all summer theatres. I saw interesting idea which Lerner brought to me last week and Aufricht’s friend in who made a very excellent adapta- which we are investigating now. Well, we’ll talk about it all tion and seems pretty sure that Edwige Feuillère (who is a soon. great actress!) will play it. – We walked over to your place. In the meantime all our love to you all, Everything looks lovely, including the new “cabin” (some Kurt cabin!!). Now it is raining—perfect weather for you. So: come back. We miss you all. Love – Kurt