Remembering LADY IN THE DARK 75 Years Later

75 years ago this week, on January 23rd 1941, this classic show opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre.

Really more a play with extended musical dream sequences, the subject matter was the psychoanalysis of harried magazine editor Liza Elliot (played by Gertrude Lawrence). The various themed dream sequences were lavishly staged and featured music by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was also a star-making turn for Danny Kaye in a supporting role.

Though the subject matter and its take on it are perhaps a bit dated in todays terms, the score is still amazing with some of Weill's best melodies from his "Broadway Period." It's one of my favorites from the era for sure.

Production Photos:

The Royal National Theatre revived this in 1997 with Maria Friedman as Liza. A wonderful production.

devonian.t - the recording of that production is simply glorious. The choral section of "Girl of the Moment" gives me chills every time I listen!

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing!

Where do all those wonderful photos come from?

Many years ago PBS had a series on lyricists that I think was hosted by Sylvia Fine Kaye, wife of Danny Kaye. I believe that one episode was devoted to Ira Gershwin. In any event, Lynn Redgrave performed a song called "The Saga of Jenny" that I instantly loved, although I had never heard of Lady in the Dark or of Kurt Weill. "Poor Jenny, bright as a penny." Since then I have learned a lot about both, but I have never heard the entire score.

On YouTube there are two performances of Jenny in big production numbers that were not really in sych with mainstream entertainment at the time. Julie Andrews from Star!, the 1968 film in which she portrayed Gertrude Lawrence and Ginger Rogers (and her infamous dress) from the 1944 film version from which most of the original score was deleted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd1j8vC_vzo

I can't understand why PBS will sell you fifty year old dramatic series, but most of its treasure of musical shows are unavailable. They sell maybe a couple of dozen DVDs from the last ten years or so.

I further don't understand why the long-running Boston Pops series "Evening at Pops" is not available on DVD. They aired many classic musical moments. Just looking at their left-over web page from its last year reminds you of some of their gems.

Kristin Chenoweth and Rob Marshall perform songs from films that were turned into stage musicals. KC does her famous "Glitter and Be Gay" as well as the title song from her first album, "Let Yourself Go," (which here is incorrectly said to be from the Jerome Kern scored Astaire/Rogers film Swing Time, when it was actually from their Irving Berlin scored Follow the Fleet and represented a rare chance for Ginger to do a solo song and dance number).

In another episode Faith Prince, Marin Mazzie and George Hearn lead a salute to Jerry Herman and the next week was devoted to a tribute to Rodgers and Hart. Good stuff that should either be available on DVD as the whole weekly episodes or just the musical highlights. Well, there is at least one DVD out there containing what were judged to be all-time great performances.

Verbose as usual.

The source here is the digitized collection of Florence and Tommy Vandamm's theatrical photographs, courtesy of the NYPL archive.

Much like Friedman-Abeles in the '60's, Martha Swope in the 70's and 80's, and Joan Marcus in more recent years, the Vandamms were the go-to theatrical photographers from the 20's throughout the 50's.

I think their work is spectacular, and the shots for LADY IN THE DARK are some of their best and one of the shows with the largest collection online. I find it so fascinating to see a show from 75 years ago, with such amazing stars and designs so vividly.