Love Life

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Love Life (disambiguation).

Love Life was a musical written by Kurt Weill (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics). It opened at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers) on October 7, 1948 and closed on May 14, 1949 after having played 252 performances. The original production starred Ray Middleton and Nanette Fabray, was directed by Elia Kazan, and choreographed by Michael Kidd.

The show told the story of a married couple, Sam and Susan Cooper, who never age as they progress from 1791 to 1948, encountering difficulties in their marriage (and thus the very fabric of American marriage) as they struggle to cope with changing social mores. One of the earliest examples of the concept musical, the action of Love Life was interspersed with vaudeville-style numbers that commented on the story, in a way very similar to Cabaret (which opened in 1966).

No official cast recording of Love Life has ever been made; a strike at the time of the original production prevented preserving the original cast of this show, as also happened with Where's Charley? the same year.

Note: The song "I Remember it Well," is the original version of a lyric Lerner revised for use in the 1958 film, Gigi.

[edit] Musical Numbers

• "Who Is Samuel Cooper?"
• "My Name Is Samuel Cooper"
• "Here I'll Stay"
• "Progress"
• "I Remember It Well"
• "Green Up Time"
• "Mother's Getting Nervous"
• "Economics"
• "My Kind of Night"
• "Women's Club Blues"
• "Love Song"
• "I'm Your Man"
• "Ho, Billy, Oh"
• "Is it Him or is it Me?"
• "Punch and Judy Get a Divorce" (Ballet)
• "This is the Life"
• Illusion Minstrel Show: "Madame Zuzu"
• Illusion Minstrel Show: "Takin' No Chances"
• Illusion Minstrel Show: "Miss Ideal Man"
• Illusion Minstrel Show: "Mr. Right"

[edit] External link

• Internet Broadway Database page for Love Life