As a concept musical, Love Life was a real trailblazer, inspiring musical theatre favourites of the 1960s, 70s and beyond from Cabaret and Chicago (originally subtitled ‘A Musical Vaudeville’) to Sondheim’s Company (told through a series of vignettes). It is “one of Weill’s best scores” (conductor Jim Holmes), a masterpiece of putting different musical styles together, “a compendium of American musical idioms, cunningly chosen so that they suit the dramatic material”. Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner teamed up in 1947, both riding high on recent successes (Street Scene for Weill, Brigadoon for Lerner) and looking for new projects. When Love Life premiered on Broadway in 1948, Weill called it “an entirely new form of theatre.” Stephen Sondheim denoted it as “a useful influence on my own work.”

Artists

Themba Mvula, Quirijn de Lang, Stephanie Corley, Kamil Bien, Nicholas Butterfield, Paul Gibson, Simon Grange, Ross McInroy, Cameron Mitchell, Tim Ochala-Greenough, Tom Smith (saxophone), Tilly Baker, Louie Stow, Will Hopkins, Joshua da Costa, Andrew Randall, Masimba Ushe, Felicity Moore, Amber Midgley, Lottie Gray, Justin Hopkins, Charlie Drummond, Helen Évora, Claire Lees, Jeremy Peaker, John Savournin, The Orchestra Of Opera North, Chorus Of Opera North, Orchestra of Opera North, James Holmes