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With he distance between the mov- her creative team, she added the song ing music of Kurt Weill's "It Never Was You" to the script, Broadway shows and the movement which presents parts of songs in music of the percussion theater French and German as well as English. great, but it's piece Stomp May seem The show has cast three singers been traveled by Laura Heller. — Lorinda Lisitza, Bjorn Olsson Heller, who was the manager of and Michael Winther — from the Stomp for five years and came to Off-Off-Broadway production by Detroit to consult on the touring Theatre Ten Ten and adds Veronica version, has taken on the title of Mittenzwei. The new staging is done producer for Berlin to Broadway by Ten Ten director Hal Simons. with Kurt Weill, a two-act revue of "Kurt Weill's music is so intricate the composer's repertoire and life. and gorgeous, but I don't think a The musical, staged at the Off- lot of people are really aware of it," Broadway Triad Theater, keeps says Heller. "I love being able to Heller close to her favorite songs now performed by four singers and a pianist. First produced in 1972, the revue spans the entire theater career of Weill — from his days in Berlin with Bertolt Brecht to his postwar Broadway collaborations with Maxwell Anderson, Ira Gershwin, Ogden Nash, Langston Hughes and Alan Jay Lerner. The familiar songs include "September Song," "Mack the Knife," "My Ship," "Speak Low" and "Lost in the Stars." Eric Stern, who recently conducted a Kurt Weill celebration at the Appearing in "Berlin to Broadway with Brooklyn Academy of Music, is Kurt Weill" at New York's Triad Theater musical director. are Michael Winther, Lorinda Lisitza, "When I was in high school, a Kurt Weill album was my favorite, Veronica Mittenzwei and Bjorn Olsson. and I listened to it every day," introduce people to the music. explains Heller, who has been a "The first New York production general and company manager for ran a year and a half, and that's Off-Broadway and Broadway shows when Off-Broadway shows did not for 21 years. run a year and a half. In 1985 in "On Mother's Day this year, I Los Angeles, it ran for two years. was on the Web and saw that it was I'm hoping to beat both of those being performed in a church base- records. I have touring rights, and if ment, so I took my daughter and it's popular in New York, we will was thrilled to hear the music definitely send out a company." again. I was so overwhelmed by the piece that I had to raise the money — Suzanne Chessler and get [the music] on stage. "The next weekend I got two Berlin to Broadway with Kurt investor associate producer friends Weill is beings performed at 8 and the person who books the Triad p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and 3 Theater to see the show, and by the p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays end of that performance, I raised half at the Triad Theater, 158 W N the money and booked the theater." 72nd Street, New York City. N Heller picked a small space with $45. (212) 279-4200. 153 seats because she didn't want the T difficulty wixh the Nazis," explains Farneth, author of Kurt Weill: A Lift in Pictures and Documents. "His par- ents immigrated to Israel, where they lived out the last years of their lives." In 1949, Weill took another turn in his musical career. Collaborating with librettist Maxwell Anderson, he composed the music for Lost in the Stars. Based on the Alan Paton novel Cry, the Beloved Country, about racial conflict in South Africa, Weill, a vic- tim of German racial theories, made no concessions to popular Broadway tastes. He wrote a work for the mass audience that moved back toward his early works of opera, and in doing so paved the way for composers like Leonard Bernstein and musical plays like West Side Story. Shortly afterward, during the run of Lost in the Stars, Weill was again collaborating with Maxwell Anderson, working on a musical version of Huckleberry Finn, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 50 years old. Lenya, who continued work as a singer and actress after his death — her star turn in Weill's The Threepenny Opera ran six years Off-Broadway in the mid-1950s — established the Kurt Weill Foundation to assist people who could extend the public's appreci- ation of her late husband's work. "Weill was an avid reader, and we know that his favorite TV show was Kukla, Fran and 011ie," Farneth says. "He liked walking, swimming and living in the country." Toward the end of his life, Weill characterized his artistic approach for an interviewer. "In retrospect, looking back on many of my own compositions, I find that I seem to react very strongly to the suffering of underprivileged peo- ple, of the oppressed, the persecuted," he said. "When my music involves human suffering, it is, for better or worse, pure Weill." . ❑ ❑ ,OvJA • Lambchops • Lamb Shish Kabob • White Fish Curry • Tabouleh • Hommus • Vegetarian Entrees • Fresh Catch • Chicken Shawarma • Etc. • Fresh Juice Bar • Cocktails and Wine Music from page 79 For information on the DIA pro- gram, see the accompanying arti- cle on page 79. For information on the Wayne State University concert — to be performed at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, in the Music Recital Hall, 412 Old Main — call (313) 577-1795.