Thursday, August 14, 2008

"Pirate Jenny" - Lotte Lenya

Lotte Lenya recreates her legendary "Pirate Jenny" from The Threepenny Opera, for which won a Tony in 1956 (which gives her the added distinction of being the only performer honored by the Theater Wing for what was officially an off-Broadway performance). For anyone who didn't see Lovemusik last season, Lenya was married to Weill until his death in 1950. She was one of the great artistic influences in his life, and very quite possibly the definitive interpreter of his songbook. She withdrew from the stage after the poorly received The Firebrand of Florence in 1945, but after Weill's death she was coaxed back to star in a new translation of Threepenny penned by Marc Blitzstein. She starred in the production with Jo Sullivan (Loesser), Beatrice Arthur, Charlotte Rae and others at the Theatre dy Lys, where it would prove a smash hit, racking up 2,707 performances. Lenya's forays into film included an Oscar nominated turn in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and quite memorably as the Bond villain Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love.

This is apparently from a 1966 Boston TV special "The World of Kurt Weill," the same year she added a considerable air of Weillian authenticity to the original production of Cabaret.

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