Kurt Weill: On Stage

Foster Hirsch, using Weill's letters, journals, and notes, and interviewing Weill's friends and colleagues, writes about his life, his experimental, political composing in Germany, his Broadway music in America - both aspects of his work being a source of controversy among music lovers for years. Lotte Lenya said, "There is no American Weill, there is no German Weill. There is no difference between them. There is only Weill." Hirsch details the writing, casting, and production of Weill's eleven hit shows. He writes about Weill's years in Hollywood and the friends he made and lost along the way. He evokes Weill's complicated, intense collaborations with Brecht, Maxwell Anderson, Langston Hughes, Alan Jay Lerner, Elmer Rice, Moss Hart, and Ira Gershwin. In this book Hirsch has given us a vivid portrayal of a remarkable artist and a fabulous era of American musical theatre.