Love Life (musical)
Template:Infobox musical Love Life is a musical written by Kurt Weill (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics).
The musical opened at the 46th Street Theatre on Broadway (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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fabray won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her performance.
Synopsis
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 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).
Revivals
In 2017 Love Life was staged at Theater Freiburg using a German-language translation of Lerner's libretto by Rüdiger Bering. His translation was approved of by the Kurt Weill Foundation and was praised for successfully "striking a tone reminiscent of the great song and operetta lyricists of the German and Viennese interwar years, such as Marcellus Schiffer and Fritz Löhner-Beda".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The show was revived twice in 2025, by Opera North in Leeds, UK (the show's UK premiere and first UK recording), with a cast headed by Quirijn de Lang and Stephanie Corley,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and by New York City Center in 2025 as part of their Encores! series starring Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell.<ref>Gans, Andrew Brian Stokes Mitchell Will Join Kate Baldwin in Love Life for City Center Encores! Playbill, March 3, 2025</ref>
Influence
Critic Norman Lebrecht has called the piece "foundational" for Stephen Sondheim. "There is no Company or Merrily or Pacific Overtures without it".<ref>Norman Lebrecht. 'The start of something new', in The Critic, 2 November, 2025</ref>
Original cast and characters
| Character | Broadway (1948)<ref>Playbill 1949 Bio Cast Listaccessed 06/21/2024</ref> |
|---|---|
| Susan Cooper | Nanette Fabray |
| Sam Cooper | Ray Middleton |
| Elizabeth Cooper | Cheryl Archer |
| Johnny Cooper | Johnny Stewart |
Musical Numbers
Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2
Part One
- The Magician
- Opening (Waltz) - The Magician, Sam, and Susan
- The Cooper Family
- Who Is Samuel Cooper? - Mary Jo, George, Jonathan, Charlie, Hank, and Women
- My Name Is Samuel Cooper - Sam
- Here I'll Stay - Sam and Susan
- Eight Men
- Progress - The Go-Getters
- The Farewell
- I Remember It Well - Sam and Susan
- Green Up-Time - Susan, Men and Women
- Polka and Green Up-Time (Reprise) - Susan, Johnny, Men and Women
- I Remember It Well (Reprise) - Sam, Susan, Johnny and Elizabeth
- Quartette
- Economics - Quartette
- Susan's Dream [Cut Song] - Quartette
- The New Baby
- Prelude and Postlude to Scene - Orchestra
- Three Tots and A Woman
- Mother's Getting Nervous - Three Tots
- Trapeze Specialty - Trapeze Artist
- Foxtrot (with Encore) - Three Tots
- My Kind of Night
- My Kind Of Night - Sam
- Women's Club Blues - Susan and Women
- My Kind of Night (Reprise) - Sam
- Love Song
- Progress (Reprise with Soft Shoe) [Cut Song] - The Go-Getters
- Love Song - Hobo
- The Cruise
- I'm Your Man - Sam, Slade, Boylan, Harvey, and Leffcourt
- You Understand Me So [Cut Song] - Susan and Taylor
- Finale Part One: I'm Your Man (Reprise) - Entire Company
Part Two
- Madrigal Singers
- Ho, Billy O! - Leader and Singers
- Radio Night
- The Locker Room Boys [Cut and Replaced with Madrigal Singers]
- The Locker Room - Locker Room Boys
- Farewell Again
- I Remember It Well (Reprise) - Sam and Susan
- Is It Him or Is It Me? - Susan
- The All-American Puppet Ballet Present Punch and Judy Get A Divorce
- Prologue - Punch, Judy, Lawyer, Judge, Bell Hop, Correspondent
- Courtroom - The same in addition to Two Lawyers, Flighty Pair, and Speedy Pair
- Family Trio (Green Up-Time) - Child, Father, and Mother
- Hep Cats (Economics) - Hep Cats
- A Hotel Room
- This Is The Life - Sam
- The Minstrel Show
- Here I'll Stay (Reprise) - Interlocutor
- We're Sellin' Sunshine - Interlocutor and Minstrels
- Introduction - Interlocutor, Sam, Susan, and Minstrels
- Madame Zuzu - Miss Horoscope and Miss Mysticism
- Takin' No Chances - Mr. Cynic
- Mr. Right (Introduction) - Miss Ideal Man
- Mr. Right - Susan
- Finale Ultimo - Sam and Susan
No official cast recording of the original production of Love Life was made; a strike at the time of the original production prevented it, as also happened with Where's Charley?, which opened four days later, on Oct. 11, 1948. The January 2025 Opera North production, produced by the BBC and issued as a CD, claims to be the first complete recording.<ref>Capriccio C5550 (2025)</ref>
The song "I Remember it Well" is the original version of a lyric Lerner revised for use in the 1958 film, Gigi.