Departments
Arts
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Week of 24 April 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 29 |
Arts
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New beginning for Brecht-Weill Happy End
by Judith Sandler
Kurt Weill's musical comedy Happy End got off to a most unhappy start.
In 1928 the German composer had collaborated with playwright Bertolt Brecht on a "cheap" opera for the people, The Threepenny Opera, which, to general surprise, became Berlin's musical event of the year. Threepenny excitingly meshed Brecht's cynical, alienating text with Weill's deceptively simply score. Few people understood that this was a revolutionary work -- in both senses -- and perhaps for that reason, Weill's catchy tunes ("Mack the Knife" among them) became pop hits around the world.
It seemed only reasonable to the director of the Berlin theater where Threepenny had played to ask Brecht and Weill for another smash hit for the 1929 season. He provided the same director, conductor, and set designer and assembled an excellent cast. What he got, barely, was Happy End -- which closed after seven performances. It has hardly been seen since, but is getting a new chance in a production by the Theatre Arts Division of SFA from April 29 through May 3.
If Happy End flopped 70-odd years ago, it certainly wasn't because of Weill's music, says Roger Croucher, director of the Theatre Arts Division at SFA, who codirects the comedy with Caroline Eves. "Happy End features some of Weill's finest songs, such as 'Surabaya-Johnny,' 'Bilbao,' 'Song of Mandalay,' and the 'Sailor's Song.'" Those numbers survived on their own, becoming popular cabaret songs.
"I think the music is stunning and very stirring," says Eves, who teaches at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts as well as at SFA. "The songs flow out of the written text. They're not added on for the sake of music."
"Happy End is a glorious work," agrees Croucher, "full of musical and acting challenges."
The acting challenges result in large part from the shaky plot, which Brecht, little interested in the project, didn't write (he took credit, reluctantly, only for the song lyrics). The story involves a group of Chicago gangsters and a female Salvation Army soldier who falls in love with one of the criminals. "It's very much like Guys and Dolls, which it predates by more than 20 years," says Croucher. (At least one critic has pointed out that both musicals might trace their roots back to George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara.)
To frame and strengthen the plot, Croucher and Eves have set it as a play within a play -- or a movie within a play. "The performance is set in a movie studio during the course of filming Happy End," explains Croucher. "Inviting an audience to view a film being made was a way of raising backers in the early days of movies. The audience members are the lucky eavesdroppers." The film production is set in the late '20s, when talkies were just starting, while the play being filmed takes place in Chicago in 1919, just at the onset of Prohibition. The period has been authentically realized in the costumes, lighting, and sound. "It creates a very immediate and exciting atmosphere," says Croucher.
Croucher and Eves selected this play with music as part of the Brecht centenary, but more important, it is the first production since a new policy in the Theatre Arts Division that requires all actors to take singing lessons in addition to movement and acting. "Getting a good start in the theater rests on good training, versatility, and confidence," says Croucher, "because the demands on the actors increase every year. Actors have a much better chance of succeeding in this highly competitive profession if they are able to hold a tune as well as act a scene."
"Certainly it will be of professional help," says SFA Dean Bruce MacCombie, "and the integration of music training into the theater arts program fits with our goal of linking artistic disciplines. I'd like to see more of this with our unique combination of arts programs."
The musical aspect of this new program is being handled by Teaching Associate Claudia Catania, who teaches Singing for Actors, a class required of all theater students. "The theater business has shifted today," says Catania. "It's very difficult to make a living in just classical theater or just film. When students go to New York, they have another venue if they can sing. This is a tough, disciplined, professional program."
The SFA actors say they are eager to meet the challenges presented by the multileveled work -- the original play and the play that is part of a movie set. "Being conscious of the camera forces us to be more real," says senior Erica Leerhsen, the production's Major Stone. "There's a tendency with these characters to let yourself go and play them up, but the camera forces you to be true to your character."
"You have a simultaneous awareness of yourself as a symbol and as a unique individual with the force of the character's beliefs behind you," says Bjorn Thorstad, a senior who plays the Director and Dr. Nakamura -- played by a young Peter Lorre in the original production. "We are creating individual characters, not comments on a stereotype."
Croucher, who has directed the Theatre Arts Division for four years, is impressed by "the all-round capability and willingness to commit of the students here, as well as the enormous number of hours they work and their tremendous dedication." Although rehearsals begin each evening at seven, after a full day of classes, the actors are expected to perform like professionals.
"I hate being hard on students," says Catania, "but the real world is very hard, so it's necessary to set high standards. I expect from them what was expected from me. In the professional world you rehearse all day and perform at night. Here at BU you learn that kind of discipline, and you learn how to survive."
Or as Brecht wrote in one of the play's songs, "If you want to be a big shot, start by learning to be tough."
Happy End, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill and book and lyrics adapted by Michael Feingold, will be directed by Roger Croucher and Caroline Eves, with musical direction by Claudia Catania, conducting by Evan Harlan, choreography by Judith Chaffee, and set design by Robert Morgan. Performances will be in Studio 210 in the Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Wednesday, April 29, through Saturday, May 2, at 8 p.m., Friday, May 1, at 4 p.m., Saturday, May 2, at 2 p.m., and Sunday, May 3, at 2 p.m. Admission is $6 and $4 for seniors and students.