Word: weill
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THAT WHIRRING NOISE you hear is Kurt Weill spinning in his grave. When he and Bertolt Brecht wrote Threepenny Opera, Happy End, and Mahagonny, they never dreamed that their operas would be performed in the ballroom of the Somerset Hotel, in front of a group of Scotch-sipping, fur-clad, overstuffed suburbanites. The producers of September Song have done to Weill exactly what Brecht complained had been done to Billy's Bawd House in Balbao: "They've made it bourgeois...
...over the initial shock of the atmosphere at the Musical Theatre II, and the overamplification provided by the jungle of microphones in front of the stage, September Song can be an enjoyable evening. The show presents a fairly accurate survey of Weill's work, divided neatly into two acts, the first mostly political, the second heavy on the old-fashioned show biz. Weill composed for lyricists as diverse as Brecht and Ogden Nash, and the creators of September Song have culled the best of all his lyricists for their show...
...cleverly stark lighting effects. Throughout, Fosse's own particular wit as a choreographer of decadence--his "Rich Man's Frug" was one of the best things in his earlier staging of Sweet Charity--serves to summon up a wealth of period references--the tinkly, jarring music of Kurt Weill, the angular, fantastic interiors of Dr. Caligari, the smoky torch songs of Blue Angel, and the bloated Bacchanites of George Grosz. In fact, his effects are occasionally so persuasive as to be claustrophobic--particularly when you add the excess of close-ups Fosse uses to tell his story...
September Song: The Musical World of Kurt Weill, Musical Theatre I, Hotel Somerset, 400 Commonwealth Ave. Performances Tues.-Thurs...
September Song, the music of Kurt Weill. Musical Theatre I, Hotel Somerset, 40C Commonwealth Ave. 8:30, Tues. Thurs...