The 1997 production of Lady in the Dark was its first staging in London, one of only about half a dozen since the first Broadway performance of this unique collaboration between Moss Hart, Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill. To accommodate the show in the small orchestra pit at the Lyttelton theatre, a reduced orchestration was used, but for this recording Weill’s original scoring is presented for the first time on disc. The accompanying notes by bruce d. meelung (sic), a scholar who has made the most detailed study of Weill’s American work, point out some of the difficulties – such as the luxury of two percussionists.
The role of Liza Elliott, a businesslike but somewhat frumpy magazine editor in real life who in her dreams turns into a glamorous socialite, was created by Gertrude Lawrence who enjoyed one of the biggest successes of her career with it. The original production was a spectacular affair, and the audience would have been thrilled when the transition ocurred and the drab Liza suddenly turned into Gertie Lawrence – the most sophisticated star of them all. As can be heard in Lawrence’s recordings, she made no attempt at an American accent and used her Mayfair-mixed-with-Cockney. Maria Friedman grew into the part (I saw the production three times) and cleverly suggested the irritability of the public Liza with a contrasting eccentric and wacky dream persona. This comes over on the record well enough, but the American accents of the cast still leave a great deal to be desired. No such problem on the old Sony studio version with Rise Stevens, but that is a severely pruned version of the score and uses arrangements, not Weill’s own orchestrations.
Mark Dorrell conducts the new recording, tipping the balance away from showbiz towards something darker, verging on contemporary music theatre. James Dreyfus’s award-winning performance carried the evening along, but on disc he doesn’t banish the memory of Danny Kaye. The original success of Lady in the Dark was largely associated with its daring use of psychoanalysis as a theme. This is old hat now, and anyway the attitudes portrayed even then must have seemed pretty naive. It’s a joy, though, to hear it complete. PO’C