LoveMusik

So I didn't intend to see this show at all. It sounded completely unappealing to me: a musical based on love letters between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. The student rush tickets were the most expensive student tickets I've ever bought and the seats were in the rear mezzanine. Plus, I haven't seen a good show at the Biltmore since Reckless, and usually I usher there and see shows for free. Sure it got the most Drama Desk award nominations, with 12, but I was in the mood for a fun musical like "In the Heights" or something. But it was across the street from "Moon for the Misbegotten," and I got to chatting with some of the folks in that student rush line. A solid argument was made: "It's a Hal Prince show... come on, it could be his last." Morbid, but true, right? So I figured if I wanted to pretend I was interested in theater at all, I figured I should check it out. Plus it's Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy, right? You can't really go wrong with that.

So I went in with very low expectations. Low expectations are always good, because sometimes you're just blown away but what you find. In this case, I wasn't. Yeah, I'm sorry to say, it just wasn't all that. Okay, it wasn't BAD, and I stayed awake and paid attention through the entire thing, which definitely says something, given I was sitting in theaters all day that day and had rear mezz seats. But it wasn't worth more Drama Desk nominations than Spring Awakening. I will say it's not Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy singing love letters back and forth to each other (which I was really scared it was going to be), but it's not too far off. Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya are pretty interesting characters, and after seeing the show, I guess I'd be interested in learning more about them? Maybe? Okay, I don't really care about them still. For those of you who don't know, Kurt Weill was a composer (he wrote the music to Brecht's Threepenny Opera), and Lenya was his on-again off-again wife that hit it big starring in that show.

The play basically starts off in the 20s in Berlin and follows the lives of Weill and Lenya. I feel like it's really more of her story, which is a much more interesting one anyway, I guess. But there's really nothing all that spectacular about it. The musical just seems like one of those biopic musicals, very Gypsy, maybe a little Boy from Oz and Jersey Boys (down to the ending which I thought was very cliche, but that might just be me). Except not as interesting. It got interesting at one point, when they had to deal with Nazi Germany and the war, which I always think will bring some intrigue and suspense, but then they just moved to America and the whole Nazi thing just disappeared. And there were some RANDOM scenes that were just like, what's going on? They were the two uppity numbers that pulled you away from the somber, slow-songed love story, but were so incredibly random that I can't decide whether they worked or not.

Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy, both quite good, won't deny (although Michael Cerveris with hair is like, what?). The play, let me reiterate, is a musical based on love letters between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. Yup, it's just what it sounds like. If it sounds appealing to you, go for it. But really, don't expect it to be much more...