Review: LADY IN THE DARK at Vienna Volksoper

Psychoanalysis by Kurt Weil

Lady In The Dark with Music by Kurt Weil, Lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and book by Moss Hart finally raised his curtain for Opening Night. The so-called Musical Play can be seen as an inspiration for many others, like Kander and Ebb. Instead of a huge Overture, you get dragged into a very intimate dialogue between the Leading Lady Liza Elliot ( wonderfully played by Volksopers very own Julia Koci) and her therapist, Dr. Brooks (Robert Meyer). The whole plot seems a bit too baggy but there are a lot of things that need to be told. It might be rather long but it never gets old. Matthias Davids directed his version of this monstrous Musical fanciful and with a lot of respect for the plot's alchemy. A rather intimate show on such a huge stage, colorful and profound with the usual Volksoper extravaganza. A wonderful mix of the swinging 20' s and the golden area of Broadway, intelligently entangled, a memorizing score for those who are willing to open their hearts and minds like Liza Elliott does it with her fears and dreams. You get caught by some heavy nightmares and disturbing memories, strangely funny characters ( especially Jakob Semotan as the Ringmaster), and a modern-day life problem to argue with, Burn-Out.

Liza Elliot, constantly plagued by indecisions in her professional and personal life got herself into a relationship with her already married publisher, Kendall Nesbitt ( Axel Herrig) who is trying to divorce his wife for Liza. Seeing Dr. Brooks, a psychologist, is helping her to find her inner strength again. Many things in life can be delivered by song, and so it will be for Liza, a song from her childhood, sung by a former pain in the neck ( unpleasantly brilliant Christian Graf as Charley Johnson) is putting her in the right direction, and after everything went wrong, Eliza found herself back where she wants to be. Music is the key to the heart, the bond between people, music is life.

Lady In The Dark is now playing at the Vienna Volksoper. For further information visit www.volksoper.at

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