OPERA
Sophisticated “Lady” Emerges
Revolutionary Hart-Weill-Gershwin collaboration revived
BY ELI JACOBSON
The legendary musical
“Lady in the Dark” (music
by Kurt Weill, lyrics
Ira Gershwin, book by
Moss Hart) opened on Broadway in
1941. The incandescent Gertrude
Lawrence starred as fashion editor
Liza Elliott and an unknown
comic Danny Kaye debuted as
her fey staff photographer Russell
Paxton. On a mid-spring weekend,
MasterVoices presented three performances
of a semi-staged concert
version of “Lady in the Dark”
at City Center featuring Victoria
Clark as Liza. This was also the
debut of the Kurt Weill Foundation
for Music’s critical edition of the
Kurt Weill/ Ira Gershwin score.
In its way, “Lady in the Dark”
created just as much of a gamechanging
revolution in musical
theater as “Show Boat” (1927) and
“Oklahoma!,” which opened two
years after “Lady” in 1943. What
was revealed in this concert performance
is that this now-rare
musical landmark is something
of an odd duck. Hart, inspired by
his own experiences in analysis,
originally conceived “Lady in the
Dark” as a straight play starring
Katharine Cornell with one or two
interpolated songs. Liza Elliott,
a busy editor of a fashion magazine,
fi nds herself suffering from
disturbing musical dreams and
public emotional breakdowns.
She seeks out Dr. Brooks, a psychiatrist,
to sort out her personal
and romantic dilemmas. (Liza is
cured in three sessions!) However,
as Hart worked on it, the dream
scenes began to expand in scope
and became fully musicalized.
Enter Weill and Gershwin.
These musical sequences are
not so much diegetic as dreamagetic
— the characters only sing in
Liza’s dreams, which explore her
repressed fantasies. The three extended
musical dream sequences
— “The Glamour Dream” and
“The Wedding Dream” in Act I and
the “The Circus Dream” in Act II
— dropped into a talky “Freud for
Dummies” women’s drama make
Victoria Clark and the cast of the MasterVoices’ production of Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin, and Moss Hart’s
“Lady in the Dark.”
for odd musical and dramatic
continuity. The musical numbers
aren’t integrated into the plot (as
in Rodgers & Hammerstein) but
are Brechtian vaudevilles that
comment on it sardonically. The
scintillating word play of Ira Gershwin’s
ingenious lyrics (in his
fi rst collaboration since the death
of his brother George) rival and
often outstrip his contemporary
Cole Porter and show a clear infl
uence on Stephen Sondheim (internal
rhymes, and the like). Weill
keeps playing with conventional
music comedy tropes turning
them on their head. Weill’s sophisticated
“Lady” was a “concept
musical” way before that term was
invented.
One thing that has made the
show diffi cult to revive is the outmoded
attitude toward a woman’s
role in society in Hart’s book. Similar
to Hollywood movies of the
period, a woman who attempts
to be independent and successful
in a man’s world is doomed
to sexual frustration and loneliness.
In 1941, Liza had to cede her
power to the man she loves, Charley
Johnson, before she can fi nd
personal fulfi llment. An abridged
1950 radio broadcast of the show
with Gertrude Lawrence (briefl y
available on an AEI CD) clearly
shows the leading lady playing
RICHARD TERMINE
RICHARD TERMINE
Victoria Clark in a gown by Zac Posen.
against that trope: In the fi nal
scene, where Liza and Charley
plan their new magazine, Lawrence
as Liza knowingly uses her
soft female charms to control him
with seductive charm.
In the script edited for this 2019
concert by Christopher Hart and
Kim Kowalke, Liza and Charley
are equally matched. Charley’s
innovative ideas inspire Liza, who
provides the experience and savoir
faire to temper his brashness and
realize his ideas. Also, Dr. Brooks
is recast as a maternal female psychiatrist,
warmly played by Amy
Irving, rather than a paternalistic
male doctor.
Victoria Clark initially seemed
too down to earth as the nerveridden
Liza but her warm mezzosoprano
voice and theatrical intelligence
illuminated the words and
music. Clark also has the ability
to wear clothing stylishly, which
was useful modeling the gowns
by Thom Browne, Zac Posen, and
Marchesa in the dream sequences
where Plain Jane Liza turns into
an irresistible temptress.
The men in her life (and dreams)
included David Pittu as a drolly
mercurial gay photographer Russell
Paxton (who is portrayed as
a pre-Stonewall comedic swish).
Pittu gives Russell all kinds of
darkly surprising edges in all his
personas and nailed the tonguetwisting
patter in “Tchaikovsky.”
Christopher Innvar found an interesting
subtext of male insecurity
and boyish vulnerability in the
abrasive Charley Johnson. Ben
Davis’ booming baritone, chiseled
profi le, and manly chest fi t Hollywood
hunk Randy Curtis to a tee.
Ron Raines as Kendall Nesbitt, Liza’s
married publisher lover, was
a strong presence with a strong
voice to match. Montego Glover
and Ashley Park were brightly
adroit and musically impeccable
as Liza’s offi ce colleagues. Ideally,
this cast should have been recorded
with supplements from the
critical edition.
Ted Sperling led the Orchestra
of St. Luke’s in a magnifi cently
realized reading of the score —
the voices were all excellent and
the overlarge chorus impressively
drilled. Doug Fitch provided easily
movable sets that went from
“black and white” subdued tones
in the book scenes to jewel-toned
Technicolor in the musical dream
sequences. Doug Varone added a
dash of modern dance eccentricity
to his choreography, and his
dancers moved from period specifi
c to post-modern funky with
élan. “Lady in the Dark” came
out from the shadows of obscurity
and was once again the toast of
New York — if only for one long
weekend.
July 18 - July 31, 2 28 019 | GayCityNews.com
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