The Kurt Weill Edition Series I — Stage Series II — Concert Series III — Screen Series IV — Miscellanea Editorial Board David Drew Joel Galand Edward Harsh Stephen Hinton Kim H. Kowalke Giselher Schubert Managing Editor Elmar Juchem Johnny Johnson A Play with Music in Three Acts Play by Paul Green Music by Kurt Weill CRITICAL REPORT Series I, Volume 13 Edited by Tim Carter 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 Johnny Johnson: A Play with Music in Three Acts Play by Paul Green Music by Kurt Weill This Critical Edition Copyright © 2012 by The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., and European American Music Corporation All Rights Reserved Published 2012 Printed in Germany 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 978-0-913574-69-0 CONTENTS List of Sources and Sigla 7 Statement of Source Valuation and Usage 9 Commentary: General Issues 17 Critical Notes 23 Table: Overview of Musical Materials for this Edition 104 Source Descriptions 107 Abbreviations 113 Kurt Weill Edition Personnel 114 Credits and Acknowledgments for this Volume 115 LIST OF SOURCES AND SIGLA SOURCES Tp0 Marked-up galley proofs (January–February 1937) for Tp1, based on the exemplar (December Full Score Format 1936) for Tt4 Fh Holograph full score (1936) Tp1 Printed script published by Samuel French (March 1937) Piano-Vocal Format TpD Deutsches Ritual: Gottesdienst-Ordnung für deutsche Vh Holograph piano-vocal score (1936; incomplete) Gemeinden der protestantisch-bischöflichen Kirche Vm1 Manuscript piano-vocal score prepared for the in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika (1884); Group Theatre production (1936; incomplete) contains German lyric for no. 31 Vm2 Manuscript piano-vocal score prepared for the Fed- eral Theatre Project (1937; incomplete) Ve Printed piano-vocal score published by Samuel ADDITIONAL MATERIALS French (1940) Drafts Piano Score Format Dh Assorted loose leaves and bifolia containing music in Pm1 Manuscript rehearsal score prepared for the Group various stages of composition (ranging from Theatre production (1936) sketches to complete continuity drafts) Pm2 Manuscript rehearsal score prepared for the Federal Theatre Project (1937) Text Tt1 Typed early draft of Act I (summer? 1936) Instrumental Parts Tt2 Typed rehearsal script (September?–November Im1 Instrumental parts prepared for the Group Theatre 1936) for the Group Theatre production production (1936) Tt5 Stenciled/typed script made by the Federal Theatre Im2 Instrumental parts prepared for the Federal Theatre Project reflecting amendments to Tt4 in the light Project (1937) of corrections to Tp0 submitted to the Federal Theatre Project in February 1937 Tt-misc Nine sides for various characters, including Sergeant Arrangements Jackson and Dr. Mahodan Ae Sheet music for nos. 7, 20, 26, 39 published by TpR Printed script of Act I, Scenes iv–v, published as Roses Chappell (1936) for Johnny Johnson (March 1938) Text Correspondence Tt3 Typed final script (November 1936) for the Group L Weill’s notes (September? 1936) to Lehman Engel Theatre production on some of the songs Tt4 Stenciled/typed script made by the Federal Theatre Project from a copy of the revised script (De- cember 1936) submitted to the Federal Theatre Programs Project in January 1937 N1 Program for the Group Theatre production in New Tt4a A copy of Tt4 that served as prompt script for the York (1936) Los Angeles production of the Federal Theatre N2 Program for the Federal Theatre Project production Project (1937) in Los Angeles (1937) 8 Miscellaneous WLRC Weill-Lenya Research Center, New York, N.Y. M1 Set designs and technical drawings for the Group Theatre production by Donald Oenslager M2 Federal Theatre Project production bulletins and PUBLICATIONS photographs GS2 Weill, Kurt. Musik und musikalisches Theater: Ge- sammelte Schriften. Mit einer Auswahl von Ge- INSTITUTIONS sprächen und Interviews. Expanded and revised edition. Edited by Stephen Hinton and Jürgen LOC/FTP Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Music Schebera. Mainz: Schott, 2000. Division, Federal Theatre Project Collection W-Fam Weill, Kurt. Briefe an die Familie, 1914–1950. Edi- NARA/FTP National Archives and Records Administration ted by Lys Symonette and Elmar Juchem. Stutt- (College Park, Md.), Record Group 69, Federal gart and Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2000. Theatre Project Collection W-LL(e) Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt NYPL New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Weill and Lotte Lenya. Edited and translated by Lincoln Center Lys Symonette and Kim H. Kowalke. Berkeley UH/CC University of Houston Libraries, Special Collec- and Los Angeles: University of California Press, tions, Cheryl Crawford Collection 1996. UNC/PG University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, W-UE Weill, Kurt. Briefwechsel mit der Universal Edition. Southern Historical Collection no. 3693, Paul Selected and edited by Nils Grosch. Stuttgart and Green Papers Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2002. WLA Weill-Lenya Archive, Irving S. Gilmore Music Li- WPD(e) Farneth, David, with Elmar Juchem and Dave Stein. brary, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. (MSS Kurt Weill: A Life in Pictures and Documents. 30, The Papers of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya) Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000. STATEMENT OF SOURCE VALUATION AND USAGE General them, when other sources contradict or in cases of error, are This Edition of Johnny Johnson presents the work as playwright given below. Paul Green revised his text in December 1936, seeking to res- cue it from the severe cuts made for the Broadway production Source Overview by the Group Theatre which had opened on 19 November. This The genesis of Johnny Johnson in 1936 and its subsequent per- is also the version that accords most fully with the surviving mu- formance history are outlined in the Introduction to the Edi- sical materials. Green submitted a copy of this revised text for tion. The writing of the play can be documented with some publication, and also one for consideration by the Federal The- thoroughness by the succession of sources for the text. First is an atre Project (FTP), which eventually mounted two stagings of early draft of Act I (Tt1), probably initiated during or shortly the work in Boston (opening 25 May 1937) and in Los Ange- after Weill’s visit with Paul Green in Chapel Hill, N.C., in May les (28 May). The latter production, which also had some lim- 1936. A more or less complete text (Tt2) reflects what was de- ited assistance from Kurt Weill, appears to have adhered most veloped during the Group Theatre’s summer residence in closely to Green’s revised text, and therefore presented in pub- Nichols, Conn., and then utilized for the initial rehearsals in lic the most complete version of Johnny Johnson to date; a per- New York City from September into early November.1 Some formance of this Edition would be close to what was intended textual and/or musical source(s) must have intervened between to be seen and heard in Los Angeles, even though some small Tt1 and Tt2, given that Weill’s notes sent to Lehman Engel in cuts eventually seem to have been made for that production too. September 1936 or thereabouts concerning a number of songs in the play (L) generate readings included in Tt2 that cannot de- Key Terms rive directly from Tt1.2 Tt2 itself seems a compilation (it is not For the purposes of this Edition, a “source” is any document always paginated sequentially), and it was revised still further from which a reading is taken or which is used to establish or support the musical and verbal text of the Edition. The term 1 The copy of Tt2 that survives in NYPL is filed with a cover letter revealing “additional materials” refers to all other documents pertaining to that it was sent by Claire Leonard (secretary to the Group Theatre) to a Miss Hamilton at the request of Margaret Barker (a member of the Group Theatre) the work’s genesis and early production history and reception. on 6 November 1936. Leonard instructed, “Will you kindly return it after you A “privileged source” provides the initial reference for a cer- have read it, as we are in need of these scripts.” Miss Hamilton did so, but pre- tain parameter of the work’s text (e.g., the instrumentation). sumably directly to Margaret Barker, which is why Tt2 survives in her papers. Such a source is the first item consulted for a given parameter, 2L is in pencil on four small sheets of paper; it can be dated approximately by Weill’s request to Engel therein for advice on how best to procure a piano for and it is upheld if not contradicted by any other source or if not his new apartment in New York City (Weill and Lenya moved into Cheryl in manifest or apparent error. In cases where other sources do Crawford’s apartment at 455 East 51st Street in September; see David Drew, contradict the privileged source, then the privileged source may Kurt Weill: A Handbook [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987], 62). Here Weill says that he is attaching “the song ‘Soldier, Soldier’ [“Song of the be upheld or overruled; in the latter case, the decision, if non- Guns,” no. 22] with all the changes and a few remarks about other changes.” trivial, is justified in the Critical Notes. If the privileged source The latter include brief passages in “Over in Europe” (no. 2; not in Tt1), is upheld, then that decision is not normally documented un- “Democracy Advancing” (no.