Donna Murphy LoveMusik Podcast Available Online

Two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy, currently starring in MTC's world premiere of the new musical LoveMusik, is featured on the Associated Press' "On Broadway" Podcast. The podcast can be heard at this link.

Murphy sat down with reporter Jane Waldman and discussed her portrayal of Lotte Lenya, the wife and muse of composer Kurt Weill (Michael Cerveris); how legendary director Harold Prince first approached her about taking the role in LoveMusik; and Murphy's own research into the fascinating lives of Lenya and Weill.

LoveMusik has been honored with 12 Drama Desk Award nominations, more than any other musical this season, including Outstanding Musical and five Outer Critics Circle Nominations including Outstanding New Broadway Musical. Cerveris and Murphy have each been nominated respectively for Outstanding Actor and Actress by the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk Awards and both have received Drama League citations for their work in LoveMusik.

Suggested by the letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, LoveMusik features a book by Pulitzer and Tony Award-winner Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, Parade). Musical staging is provided by Patricia Birch (A Little Night Music), and direction by 21-time Tony Award-winner Harold Prince (The Phantom of the Opera, Cabaret, and Sweeney Todd). 

"LoveMusik follows the lives of the unlikeliest of lovers – the brilliant, intellectual German composer Kurt Weill (Cerveris) and the woman who became his muse and star, Lotte Lenya (Murphy). LoveMusik is an epic romance, set in Berlin, Paris, Broadway and Hollywood, spanning 25 years in the lives of this complicated couple," state press notes.

The production also features David Pittu (Bertolt Brecht) and John Scherer (George Davis), with Judith Blazer, Edwin Cahill, Herndon Lackey, Erik Liberman, Ann Morrison, Graham Rowat, Rachel Ulanet and Jessica Wright.

LoveMusik is produced by Manhattan Theatre Club by special arrangement with Marty Bell, Aldo Scrofani, Boyett Ostar Productions, Tracy Aron, Roger Berlind/Debra Black, Chase Mishkin, and Ted Snowdon.

LoveMusik features the lyrics of Maxwell Anderson, Bertolt Brecht, Howard Dietz, Roger Fernay, Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Langston Hughes, Alan Jay Lerner, Maurice Magre, Ogden Nash, Elmer Rice and Kurt Weill.

The LoveMusik design and production team are Beowulf Boritt (Scenic Design), Judith Dolan (Costume Design), Howell Binkley (Lighting Design), Duncan Robert Edwards (Sound Design), Paul Huntley (Wig Design), Angelina Avallone (Make-up Design), Mark Simon (Casting), Jonathan Tunick (Orchestrations), Kristen Blodgette (Musical Supervisor), Seymour Red Press (Music Coordinator), Milton Granger (Additional Vocal Arrangements), and Nicholas Archer (Conductor).

Visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com for more information.

Photo of Donna Murphy by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.