The Weill-Lerner Broadway Vaudeville Love Life has triumphed in a new production at Opera North in Leeds, England. With Kurt Weill Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award laureate James Holmes as Music Director, directed by Matthew Eberhardt, and choreographed by Will Tuckett, the production premiered on 16 January 2025, to unanimous critical acclaim. The performances were captured for broadcast and streaming by the BBC beginning 8 February and subsequent release by the Capriccio label as the first ever commercial recording of the work. A sampling of critical reaction follows. (Production photos by James Glossop.)

★★★★★ “This rip-roaring revival of the 1948 collaboration between Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner touches a nerve – and reinvents a genre… Bring on the recording, and some more revivals!”
The Daily Telegraph – Nicholas Kenyon

“a surreal but (in every sense) timely piece of musical theatre history.”
The Guardian – Sarah Noble

“Love Life is an extraordinary piece for the Broadway of its time… What Lerner and Weill created is one of a kind.”
Arts Desk – Robert Beale

“Comedy, music, dancing, and even magic, this show has it all.”
The Reviews Hub – Jennie Eyres

“The thing I hadn’t banked on was that Love Life would be full of references to other musicals – years before they were written! I found every element of the show to be superb.”
Tyke It To The Limit – Stan Graham

“Love Life’s relatable characters and themes have timeless relevance, and with such a fabulous score, thought-provoking cynicism, pleasing humour and enjoyable, stimulating variety, it’s surprising this superb musical drama isn’t more widely performed.”
Mature Times – Eileen Caiger Gray

★★★★★ “James Holmes, long a mainstay of Opera North’s music team and an expert in Kurt Weill’s music, is musical director. The orchestra is in full view on stage, and if the sound quality captured is as good as what was heard in the auditorium last night, [the recording] will be magnificent.”
Theatre Reviews North – Robert Beale

“The orchestra is conducted by James Holmes, and the score 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 emphasized here by the inclusion of (for example) banjo, mandolin and woodwind in ways that augment this diversity and creativity.”
British Theatre Guide – Mark Love-Smith

“The score’s superb orchestration gives time and space to instruments from all sections… This lovingly crafted music strongly evokes America as hoedown, waltz, polka, boogie-woogie, jaunty syncopation and laid-back swing.”
Mature Times – Eileen Caiger Gray

“Binding the show together as a compelling couple, moving with the times as their relationship falls apart, Stephanie Corley is Susan (who stonkingly delivers the climactic number “Mr Right”) and Quirijn de Lang is Sam (who makes a brutal attempt at living alone in “This is The Life”), supported by Louie Stow and Tilly Baker as their talented children.
The Daily Telegraph – Nicholas Kenyon

“Baritone Quirijn de Lang and soprano Stephanie Corley prove unbeatable as Sam and Susan, delivering readings that are vocally immaculate and physically stylish.”
The Stage – George Hall

“Matthew Eberhardt’s new staging and Will Tuckett’s scintillating choreography are like a gust of fresh air. Thirty-six members of the Orchestra of Opera North conducted by James Holmes are liberated from the pit and placed upstage to form an integral element of the action. In front of the musicians and aided by minimal furnishings and props, a large cast of singers and dancers feature in vignettes of the ageless Coopers and their children, time-travelling through an imagined 150 years of American history.”
Wharfedale Observer – Geoffrey Mogridge

“Matthew Eberhardt’s production, with designs by Zahra Mansouri, wisely opts for relative minimalism. Against a set consisting largely of steel girders and risers, including a bandstand for the orchestra, Sam and Susan remain in the same timeless black outfits throughout, in contrast to gilded theatrical detail for the vaudevillians.”
The Guardian – Sarah Noble

“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.”
British Theatre Guide – Mark Love-Smith

“There are charismatic turns, too, from baritone Themba Mvula as the snakily charming Magician/Con Man, bass-baritone Justin Hopkins as the Hobo, and dancers Holly Saw and Max Westwell, whose Divorce Ballet, choreographed by Will Tuckett, seems to leap straight out of Hollywood’s golden age.”
The Guardian – Sarah Noble

“Among a host of secondary roles, Justin Hopkins’ Hobo delivers the title song to perfection. Will Tuckett’s choreography is gamely presented by the company and expertly delivered by dancers Holly Saw and Max Westwell in the Divorce Ballet sequence of the second act.”
The Stage – George Hall