Happy End (musical)

Happy End is a three-act musical comedy by Kurt Weill, Elisabeth Hauptmann and Bertolt Brecht which first opened in Berlin at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm on September 2 1929. It closed after seven performances.

History

After the success of Weill and Brecht's previous collaboration, The Threepenny Opera, the duo devised this musical, written by Elisabeth Hauptmann under the pseudonym of Dorothy Lane. Hauptmann's sources included, among others, Major Barbara - the story of a Salvation Army officer who falls in love with a gangster. The story is reminiscent of, but not the source of, the more well-known musical Guys and Dolls (which was based on Damon Runyon's short story, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown.") The debut was plagued by problems. Hauptmann never finished the book of the musical, the play's opening debut saw cast member Helene Weigel reading from a Communist pamphlet on stage, and it was met with near-unanimous pans from the German press and deemed a total failure. Nevertheless, the play saw several revivals, the first in Munich in 1956. Successive incarnations included a 1957 revival in Hamburg, a 1965 revival in London, a 1977 Broadway production staring Christopher Lloyd, Grayson Hall and Meryl Streep, and a 1983 revival in Frankfurt, a 1979 German film version, a 1984 revival by Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage (televised as part of the short-lived "America's Musical Theater" series on PBS) and a 2006 production by San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre from which a CD cast recording was made, using an English adaptation by Michael Feingold. That version has been performed in venues including New York and Baltimore.

Plot

The musical is set in 1919 Chicago and focuses on Salvation Army worker Lilian Holiday's struggles to reform criminals such as gangster Bill Cracker and the Lady in Grey. Holiday is fired among fears she is getting too close to the gang, but eventually allowed back in. Complications include a botched Christmas Eve robbery by the gang, and Holiday and Cracker's growing relationship. The ending sees the gang uniting with the Salvation Army to open a downtown office.

Music

Despite the poor initial reception of the play, several musical numbers have seen continued popularity. These include "Surabaya Johnny", sung by soprano Holiday and baritone Cracker, and "Bilbao Song".

Quote

The phrase "robbing a bank's no crime compared to owning one" derives from this play.

References

• BBC article on Kurt Weill
• Green, Stanley. The Broadway Fake Book.

External links

• Page from the Kurt Weill Foundation

•  • e The Plays of Bertolt Brecht

Baal • Drums in the Night • The Beggar • A Wedding • Driving Out a Devil • Lux in Tenebris • The Catch • In The Jungle of Cities • Edward II • Man Equals Man • The Elephant Calf • Little Mahagonny • The Threepenny Opera • The Flight across the Ocean • The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent • Happy End • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny • He Said Yes / He Said No • The Decision • Saint Joan of the Stockyards • The Exception and the Rule • The Mother • Kuhle Wampe • The Seven Deadly Sins • Round Heads and Pointed Heads • The Horatians and the Curiatians • Fear and Misery of the Third Reich • Señora Carrar's Rifles • Life of Galileo • How Much Is Your Iron? • Dansen • Mother Courage and Her Children • The Trial of Lucullus • Mr Puntila and his Man Matti • The Good Person of Szechwan • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui • Hangmen Also Die • The Visions of Simone Machard • The Duchess of Malfi • Schweyk in the Second World War • The Caucasian Chalk Circle • Antigone • The Days of the Commune • The Tutor • Die Verurteilung des Lukullus • Report from Herrnburg • Coriolanus • Joan of Arc • Turandot • Don Juan • Trumpets and Drums