This weekend, Musical Theater Southwest inaugurated an intimate space, the Ana Chavira Theater, just west of its big auditorium. The first production "Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill", will play for two more weekends.
It’s one of those shows that relies on singers (four) and an onstage pianist; a very few spoken words trace Weill’s musical career from his native Germany to New York City.
The first act leaned on "Three Penny Opera", "Happy End" and "Mahogonny" The second revived Weill’s work for shows like "Johnny Johnson", "Knickerbocker Holiday", "Street Scene" and "Cry the Beloved Country".
Act One seemed very long. Act Two was pleasant.
I sensed that the performers, three of them young Americans, failed to grasp the pessimism and cynicism of the Weill who wrote in Germany in the 1920s and ‘30s.
They did better, I think, with his American music in the second half. Not that he became a cockeyed optimist – there is plenty of sadness in September Song, Lonely House and Lost in the Stars. But that’s sadness, not despair, and a far cry from Pirate Jenny and Surabaya Johnny.
I love Weill’s bluesy decadent early work; what might he have done with Cabaret? But as an American, I cannot help but thank my lucky stars I grew up singing "I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy."
Hope gets you pretty far in life.