PostedNovember 26, 2024
AuthorEd Harsh

“Mack The Knife” Back on Broadway,
Just in Time.

Tony Award winner Jonathan Groff (Merrily We Roll Along, Hamilton) stars as Bobby Darin in a new musical titled Just in Time. The show’s roots lie in a 2018 Lyrics & Lyricists program at the 92nd Street Y in New York City that was conceived by Ted Chapin. Fittingly, Darin’s biggest hit, “Mack the Knife,” is given a starring role, heard multiple times, the climax of the first act through curtain calls. Other Darin hits included in the score are “Beyond the Sea,” “Splish Splash,” and “Dream Lover.” Just in Time is developed and directed by Tony Award winner Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge).

Marc Blitzstein’s Unperformed Early Work
Parabola and Circula Set for Premiere

An undated photo of Marc Blitzstein from early in his career.

Marc Blitzstein’s large catalogue of works includes several that have never been published or performed, particularly from his early career, including the one-act opera Parabola and Circula (1929). The libretto by surrealist poet George Whitsett concerns a number of geometric figures who undermine the love of the title characters, leading ultimately to the death of Circula. Blitzstein was unable to arrange a performance, and the work lay forgotten among his papers. The Bauhaus Foundation in Berlin got wind of it and has scheduled a world premiere for September 2025 with the Norrköping Orchestra under the direction of Karl Heinz Steffens. Boosey & Hawkes will generate performing materials and subsequently publish the opera. Berliners have already had a foretaste of Parabola and Circula on 17 October, when Noam Heinz and Alma Sadé sang excerpts with piano as part of the Bauhaus 2024 Music festival.

Featured Upcoming Events

8 December – Mahagonny Songspiel
STUDIO Teatrgaleria (Warsaw) (Krystian Lada, director; Lilianna Krych, music director)
Warsaw’s adventurous STUDIO Teatrgalerie pairs Weill’s one-act masterpiece with Afterparty, a new work by a Polish composer based in the Netherlands, Kasia Głowicka, on a related theme of a false metropolitan utopia. Also 10, 11, 12, 19, 20 December and 23, 24, 26 January.

6 January – Die sieben Todsünden
Kölner Philharmonie (Ensemble Modern with Wallis Giunta and ensemble amarcord, conducted by HK Gruber)
Another performance by this dream team line-up. The long-established Weill partnership between HK Gruber and Germany’s Ensemble Modern is joined by Wallis Giunta, proven many times over as one of the great interpreters of Die sieben Todsünden. Vocal ensemble amarcord reprises its role as The Family in this performance of the new fifteen-player version of the work prepared by Gruber and Christian Muthspiel. The performance will be recorded for release on the Ensemble’s record label, featuring the same repertory these artists presented in Carnegie Hall earlier this year.

16 January – Love Life
Opera North (Matthew Eberhardt, director; James Holmes, music director)
The first of two long-anticipated productions of Kurt Weill’s great and supremely influential Broadway “Vaudeville,” with musical direction by one of the most esteemed and experienced Weill conductors in the world. Also 17 & 18 January.

For a full listing of upcoming events, view the Kurt Weill events calendar.

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