Lost in the Stars

Lost in the Stars is a musical with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill, based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1949.

Productions

The musical opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on October 30, 1949 and closed on July 1, 1950 after 273 performances. The production was supervised and directed by Rouben Mamoulian and choreographed by La Verne French. The original cast included Todd Duncan and Inez Matthews. Lost in the Stars was his last completed work before he died in 1950.

The musical was adapted for the screen in 1974 and released as part of the American Film Theatre series.^[1]

A Broadway revival opened at the Imperial Theatre on April 18, 1972 and closed on May 20, 1972 after 39 performances and 8 previews. Directed by Gene Frankel with choreography by Louis Johnson the cast featured Rod Perry as Leader, Brock Peters as Stephen Kumalo, Leslie Banks as James Jarvis, and Rosetta LeNoire as Grace Kumalo. Peters was nominated for the Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award Outstanding Performance, and Gilbert Price was nominated for the Tony Award Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

The Long Wharf Theater, New Haven, Connecticut, presented a revival in April 1986, directed by Arvin Brown.^[2]

The New York City Opera presented the musical in April 1958. Directed by Jose Quintero, the cast featured Lawrence Winters (Stephen Kumalo) and Lee Charles (Leader). The conducter of those performances, Julius Rudel, later conducted a 1992 recording with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (Musicmasters 01612-67100; CD).^[3][4]

Song list

Roles and original cast

• Leader (tenor or high baritone) – Frank Roane
• Stephen Kumalo (baritone) – Todd Duncan
• James Jarvis - Leslie Banks
• Linda (singer-dancer) – Sheila Guyse
• Irina (mezzo-soprano) – Inez Matthews
• Alex (boy soprano) – Herbert Coleman

Musical analysis

Weill did not want to use the "tom-tom" beat that Americans were familiar with, nor did he want the spirituals of the South, and obtained recordings of Zulu music from Africa to study. In an interview with The New York Times however, Weill noted that "American sprituals are closer to African music than many people realize." In pointing out the set, he commented "Notice that this is an Anglican church. That is another influence that appears in the music. In general, the whole play has a Biblical tone that we hope the public will like."^[5] He was influenced by African American musical idioms through his use of spiritual melodies, blues and jazz.

The title song "Lost in the Stars" enjoyed a measure of popular success, and versions of it were recorded by Anita O'Day, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan and many others. The words, which in the musical are those of the minister Stephen Kumalo at the depth of his desperation, tell how God once "held all the stars in the palm of his hand" "and they ran through his fingers like grains of sand, and one little star fell alone." Kumalo says that God sought and found the little lost star and "stated and promised he'd take special care so it wouldn't get lost again." But at times he thinks that God has forgotten his promise and that "we're lost out here in the stars."

Response

Critic Brooks Atkinson, in his review for The New York Times wrote of the original 1949 Broadway production that Maxwell Anderson and Mr. Weill had encountered "obvious difficulty" in transforming "so thoroughly a work of literary art" into theatre, and was sometimes "skimming and literal where the novel is rich and allusive." He suggested that people unfamiliar with the novel might not fully appreciate the "multitudinous forces that are running headlong through this tragic story." He praised Anderson's "taste and integrity" and described the last scene as "profoundly moving."^[6] Robert Garland, writing in the Journal American, similarly commented that "the beauty and simplicity of Paton's book infrequently comes through."

In contrast, Atkinson felt that the music positively added to the experience of the novel: "Here, the theatre has come bearing its most memorable gifts. In the past Mr. Weill has given the theatre some fine scores. But...it is difficult to remember anything out of his portfolio as eloquent as this richly orchestrated singing music....[It is] overflowing with the same compassion that Mr. Paton brought to his novel...The music is deep, dramatic, and beautiful."^[6]

References

• Description of the musical
• Kurt Weill Foundation summary

External links

• Internet Boadway Database listing, 1949
• Internet Boadway Database listing, 1972
• guidetomusicaltheatre.com listing with synopsis and song list
• Lost in the Stars production and background at Rodgers and Hammerstein site