The Great White Weill

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The New York Sun

Throughout the half-century since the death of Kurt Weill, the songs and shows the composer regarded as his least commercial – the experimental and rabidly anti-capitalist work he wrote in Weimar Germany – have increased in popularity. Cabaret singers like Ute Lemper make a specialty of this material (of which “Mack the Knife,” written in 1928, has been by far Weill’s biggest posthumous hit), and last year a revue of them titled “Here Lies Jenny” ran off-Broadway; “Threepenny Opera” is slated for another Broadway revival next March. But in a curious reversal of fortune, the many hits (as well as several notable flops) Weill generated in the 15 years he lived in this country are, apart from “September Song,” performed only rarely.


Now cabaret diva Andrea Marcovicci has set out to rectify the situation with her show at the 92nd Street Y, “Kurt Weill in America,” which concludes its three-day run tonight. Ms. Marcovicci did some solid research in dusting off two dozen songs Weill (1900-1950) wrote in this country, most of which have barely been heard since their original outings. She assembled the songs by show, starting with Weill’s first New York venture, “Johnny Johnson,” an anti-war parable that most resembled his European work (and included a cowboy song with a tango verse). She also unearthed such non-Broadway rarities as “Buddy on the Night Shift,” a song written to encourage factory workers during World War II, and two obscure film songs with lyrics by “Big Bad Wolf” composer Ann Ronell.


On Saturday night, Ms. Marcovicci performed alongside six other singers. There were two tenor-baritones, cabaret star Jeff Harnar and Broadway-styled crooner Mark Coffin, and two notable New York club singers, Barbara Brussell and the 25-year-old prodigy Maude Maggart.The best voices were those of the classically trained soprano Anna Bergman and the bass-baritone Chuck Cooper, who sang the love duet from “Street Scene” so beautifully that it made everything else on the program seem flat by comparison.


Mr. Cooper also provided the evening’s most moving moments during two songs from Weill’s musical tragedy “Lost in the Stars,” which railed against apartheid as that system was first being implemented in South Africa.Mr.Cooper’s rendition of the title song was glorious but compromised by the odd decision to include the rest of the cast in a cheery chorus to close the show’s first half. Thankfully, Mr. Cooper was left alone to perform the African-style ballad “Thousands of Miles,” a stunning song completely overlooked by pop and jazz singers (excepting Dick Haymes).


The rest of the show worked well when the singers stayed within their limitations. Ms. Marcovicci doesn’t have enough chops to do justice to “It Never Was You” – especially to the ears of someone who’s heard Judy Garland and Tony Bennett sing it – but she was excellent on the talky, funny “Saga of Jenny” and “Sing Me Not a Ballad.” Mr. Harnar has a pleasant voice for ballads – he was very convincing on the wistful “Westwind” – but absolutely no sense of swing, so having him replicate Bobby Darin’s hit arrangement of “Mack the Knife” (the only Weimar song included) was a disaster. Nor do I know why Ms. Marcovicci decided to force two exceptional solos from “One Touch of Venus” into group numbers: “That’s Him” is supposed to be intimate, but with all four women singing it, it was as cheesy as a “Sex and the City” rerun.


Despite the occasional misstep, Ms. Marcovicci made her point: that Weill’s American music is not only more musical than his earlier work, it is every bit as soaring and melodic as that of the major Great American Songbook composers. Weill wrote songs like “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” in Berlin; on Broadway and in Hollywood, he wrote songs with titles like “Life, Love, and Laughter.” No wonder Ms. Marcovicci calls it “The Un-Vile Weill.”


***


For another new perspective on Weill, check out “Travis Shook Plays Kurt Weill” (Dead Horse Records DHR 2720) which features marvelously thoughtful and inspired treatments of seven of Weill’s most familiar songs. Mr. Shook, a pianist, consistently finds a copacetic halfway point between bebop grooves and the original theater tempos of the songs: He may be the first jazz pianist to swing the melody of “Alabama Song” and blow on its changes. He even finds something new to do with the over-heard “Mack the Knife,” giving it a modal treatment with a light samba background and a 6/4 time signature – sort of Kurt Weill meets Wayne Shorter.


“Kurt Weill in America” will be performed again today at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the 92nd Street Y (Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street, 212-415-5500).


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