Kurt Weill Revue

German composer Kurt Weill’s tunes lent sophisticated melodies to the work of some of the great stage musical lyricists of the previous century (including Gershwin and Brecht, among many others). Collected into the revue Berlin to Broadway, it’s work with bubbly streams and dark undercurrents that translated even into the age of rock ’n’ roll—“Alabama Song” by The Doors and the strychnine “Pirate Jenny” by Nina Simone are two immortal Weill covers that careen into chilling territory. “There’s this great seductive melody under these lyrics that are actually really biting,” says the show’s director, Wendy Knox, who heads a force including ace local vocal powerhouses Bradley Greenwald and Christina Baldwin (both of whom were Theatre de la Jeune Lune anchors and have appeared in recent years at the Guthrie). “It’s an interesting balance, because you don’t want to allow the audience to be completely seduced by the melody.” We’ll take our chances.