| Music & Lyrics: | Cole Porter |
| Book: | Herbert Fields |
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A dizzy distillation of the perpetually party-going Twenties in New York. The fascination of low life for high society makes for madcap hilarity in this romance between an heiress and a gangster, which also had a part for that great disturber of the peace, Jimmy Durante. Explosive comedy from Fields (of Annie Get Your Gun); sexy wit from Porter, in The Great Indoors and the notorious Love for Sale, banned from radio for many years. Other great songs are the dreamy Let's Fly Away and Where Have You Been? and the proud, pulsating I Happen to Like New York.
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| Jimmy Durante and The New Yorkers company (left) and Ann Pennington (right), from the original 1930 production | |
| Courtesy of the Cole Porter Music and Literary Trusts | |
Tickets £21-£27.50 bookable in advance at
Sadler's Wells Box Office, 0844 412 4300.
| Music: | Kurt Weill |
| Book & Lyrics: | Paul Green |
Kurt Weill's first American musical, mixing satire, sentiment, and surrealism, was, perhaps, too much of a good thing to be a Broadway hit. But all the critics agreed that this anti-war fantasy had an extremely rich and complex score--cowboy ballads, French music-hall, American vaudeville, and, of course, Weill's own mordant, sinister, and, heartbreaking style. Combining broad comedy (a singing Statue of Liberty, a soldier who tries to bring peace by spraying the generals with laughing gas) and droll wit (a burlesque of psychoanalysis), this is a one-of-a-kind period piece and a treasure trove of gorgeous melodies.
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Russell Collins and Poebe Brand from the original 1936
production of Johnny Johnson courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center, Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, New York |
Tickets £21-£27.50 bookable in advance at
Sadler's Wells Box Office, 0844 412 4300.