Lady in the Dark
Opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York on January 23, 1941. 467 performances. Book by Moss Hart. Music by Kurt Weill. Lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Directed by Hassard Short. Dances staged by Albertina Rasch. Produced by Sam H. Harris. Cast included Gertrude Lawrence, Danny Kaye, Victor Mature, MacDonald Carey, Bert Lytell, Natalie Schafer, and Margaret Dale.
Gertrude Lawrence stopped the show at every performance with her rendition of “The Saga of Jenny” in the second act. LADY IN THE DARK was a landmark musical in that the music was plotted only in the extended dream sequences as experienced by Liza Elliot, a fashion magazine editor who is undergoing a personal crisis. With the guidance of her psychiatrist, Dr. Brooks, Liza works explores her psyche and by the end of the play begins to find her way through the “dark.” Danny Kaye emerged as a star, brilliantly executing the tongue-twisting lyrics to “Tchaikowsky,” in this musical that brought Ira Gershwin back to Broadway for the first time since his brother George’s death in 1937.
To license LADY IN THE DARK, please contact Rodgers & Hammerstein.
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