LoveMusik to Have an Open-Ended Bway Run?

An open-ended Broadway run may be in the cards for MTC's production of the new musical LoveMusik, Variety reports.

Although MTC artistic director Lynne Meadow has expressed that there is no immediate talk of a transfer, "Gotham legit watchers' expectations are running high for LoveMusik, an unusually costly Manhattan Theater Club outing that, if successful, looks ripe for commercial life beyond the limited nonprofit run," according to the article.  The new musical, which stars Michael Cerveris as German composer Kurt Weill and Donna Murphy as his singer/actress wife Lotte Lenya, features a number of elements that would suggest a future commerical life, including two Tony Award-winning stars, direction by the legendary Harold Prince, $2 million in "enhancement coin" by commercial producers such as Marty Bell, and a recent hot streak for MTC, which is currently presenting the critically acclaimed play Blackbird and last year produced Pulitzer Prize-winner Rabbit Hole.

"I think LoveMusik is going to appeal to a wide range of people.  But Kurt Weill is Kurt Weill. It's not Hairspray. A transfer is the byproduct, not the goal," said Meadow on the musical.  If a transfer occurs, MTC will most likely search for a larger theatre than the Biltmore.  LoveMusik is the first musical that MTC has produced since 2000's The Wild Party.

LoveMusik began performances on April 12th and opens on May 3rd.  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 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.