Word: weill
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...CHARACTERS on the seedy stage of the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill Threepenny Opera look out for themselves. An effective production of the unique hybrid of cabaret song, Broadway show, and revolutionary tract should leave you asking yourself whether you're any different. Brecht's script keeps up a steady fire of political comment, and his socialism slips in discreetly enough so that even American audiences in the '50s could stomach it. But it's Weill's brooding, often harsh music--so evocative of Weimar Germany's rotten core--that fixes The Threepenny Opera's world of human iniquity and mortality...
...Threepenny Opera is long--almost three hours--and demands a versatile cast of singing actors. They don't have to be polished--gravelly, ugly voices suit Weill's music better than smooth ones, anyway. But they have to capture the sordid decadence that fills both text and music--they need a sense of atmosphere. The production fails because director and performers never secure this black mood...
Fans of German composer Kurt Weill, best known for his incomparable score of The Threepenny Opera, might be very interested in Down in the Valley. Weill composed this one-act opera in 1948 expressly for amateur groups. Stage Space, a neophyte Brookline company behind this production, is an amateur group in a technical sense only; the "Phoenix" praised the competence and the excellent voices of the performers. The story tugs at the tear-ducts, with events ending unhappily for two star-crossed lovers in Appalachia. But the music is superb, utilizing old folk songs and ballads; most viewers will recognize...
...women's movie, Girl Friends breaks no new ground. The idea of exploring a friendship between women is potentially good, but Weill relies on conventional trappings of "liberation." The hyper-sensitivity of the two women in dealing with each other is cloying, their supportiveness towards each other is sincere but nothing new, and the last scene suggests that although their friendship is strong, it lacks judgement...
Girl Friends. Independently produced and directed by Claudia Weill '68, it's a pleasant but lightweight portrait of a young woman photographer in New York. She's a nice Jewish girl with a great sense of humor (your mother would love her), but unfortuantely the movie is a little short in the plot department. There are some great cameo roles by well-known actors, however; Eli Wallach as the 60-year-old rabbi she has a brief affair with is one of the best. It's short and sweet, and, all in all, a fairly innocuous way to spend...