Love Life

Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner
Opera North
Leeds Grand Theatre

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The Chorus of Opera North in Love Life Credit: James Glossop
Stephanie Corley and Quirijn de Lang Credit: James Glossop
Stephanie Corley Credit: James Glossop
Themba Mvula Credit: James Glossop

Weill and Lerner’s one-off collaboration is an early—perhaps the first—example of a concept musical. Premièring on Broadway in 1948, it centres on the Cooper family, Sam and Susan, and their two children. We follow the Coopers from their arrival in a new town, starting with modest and wholesome ambitions to set up a homespun carpentry business. From there, we witness the effects of industrial expansion, the growth of the family’s wealth, then financial difficulties, female emancipation, marital tensions… in short, we see the coming of the modern era. The twist is that the family members remain recognisably the same age throughout—early middle-age parents and pre-teen children—while the time skips from 1791 across a range of eras, landing in modern-day 1948.

This quirky chronology is not explained nor commented upon; rather, it serves to make the central character of the piece these eras themselves rather than the people living in them. The Coopers are a cipher for what it’s like to live, love and make a living at each of these historical moments, with the idealised pre-industrial community gradually giving way to a cut-throat, financially-obsessed, neurotic modernity in which couples barely speak with each other and the pace of life drives families apart. It’s Capitalism! the Musical, essentially, presented as a sketch-based ‘vaudeville’—and it’s not hard to discern the influence on later shows, from Guys and Dolls or Chicago to Follies or Merrily We Roll Along.

Opera North has again offered audiences a treat, then, not only in remounting this rich but rarely performed show (the forthcoming full cast recording emerging from this production will be the first ever released), but in providing such an engaging rendition.

While the nature of the piece means that the humour in it is more wry and occasionally even wince-inducing than warm and laugh-out-loud, there are wonderful lighter moments and toe-tapping tunes all the way through. The compendium nature of the show means, too, that these are shared well amongst the strong ensemble. Act two’s jaunty spring party tune “Green-Up Time” gives way to what was for me the first stand-out moment, when the male harmony quartet deliver “Economics”, and the musical idiom shifts from pastoral themes into a jazzier mode with more of a swing and a lyrical bite.

We then get an impressive song-and-dance turn from three “tots”, a trio of school-age girls who comment on the pressures of parenthood in “Mother’s Getting Nervous”. Felicity Moore, Amber Midgley and Lottie Gray hold their own here alongside the more experienced members of the Opera North company. And later, varying sizes of choruses perform a range of styles from madrigals to bluesy showstoppers.

There’s also a role for an omniscient “Hobo”, played by international singing competition winner Justin Hopkins, who gives a wistful and soulful take on “Love Song”. And later we get a “Divorce Ballet”, and various other dance interludes, from dancers Holly Saw and Max Westwell. Some of the lifts and moves (choreographed by Will Tuckett) are stunning.

Despite this wealth of performance talent and styles, director Matthew Eberhardt has taken a stripped-back approach that focuses on the performative nature of this vaudeville. Zahra Mansouri’s set and costume eschews illustrative backdrops, instead presenting the whole orchestra onstage behind the action, and her plain black costumes for the more realist scenes contrast well with the more elaborate outfits for the different ‘acts’. Howard Hudson’s lighting hence also plays a key role in generating atmosphere and presenting this fictional, stagey world within the piece.

The orchestra is conducted by James Holmes, and the arrangement really brings out the diversity of styles and eras. While all inflected by the melodic popular idiom of the time in which it was written (and Weill’s tuneful genius), the music also embraces a range of styles which are emphasised here by the inclusion of (for example) banjo, mandolin and woodwind in ways that augment this diversity and creativity.

Quirijn de Lang (Sam Cooper) and Stephanie Corley (Susan Cooper) excel as the central couple. They previously teamed up in Kiss Me Kate, though this is by nature a much less showy pair of performances, showcasing their restraint more than their humour. De Lang has shown himself able to play the butt of the joke, and here it is the same, though the joke is as painful as it is funny—these are characters who wouldn’t be out of place in a Richard Yates novel. Whether as a railway employee or share speculator in the 19th century, a try-hard entrepreneur in the early twentieth or a divorced dad trying to convince himself there’s more to life than the walls of his temporary hotel accommodation, he captures the mood of the piece superbly.

Corley, too, is a brilliant, sad and powerful presence. Her strongest vocal performance perhaps comes in the “Women’s Club Blues”, a riproaring and jazzy number about female emancipation. But she is fantastic throughout, playing the nuances while still capable of belting out these catchy numbers.

The frame-breaking final act shows up the illusionism of various modern solutions to modern problems: horoscopes, matinée idols, or a cynicism which scoffs at anyone who dares truly to feel things. And it also unpicks its own musical idiom one final time, searching for a song that will capture the meaning of love as well as of life.

Humorous chorus numbers “Economics” and “Progress” together lay out the musical’s core thesis: that there’s one thing that “defeats” male-female relationships: money. It’s the story of a pivotal 150-odd years of American history as “life” takes over from “love”. That Opera North pulls it off so jauntily while still mining this sadness is further evidence that this is a company not to be missed.

Reviewer: Mark Love-Smith

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