Kurt Weill songs to be on tap at Mid City Theatre
By ALAN SMASON
It’s been almost 63 years since Kurt Weill died, yet his mark as a composer of music in his native Europe and his adopted homeland of America is still legendary. Many of his works have joined the pantheon of the Great American Songbook and are favorites of cabaret performers.
Cabaret performer Bremner Duthie performs Kurt Weill songs Tuesday night. (Photo courtesy Bremner Duthie)
Weill, who, along with his non-Jewish lyricist partner Bertolt Brecht, was forced to flee his native Germany at the rise of Hitler’s power. He first stayed in Paris and later sequestered in London for a total of two and a half years before arriving in New York in 1935 with his wife Lotte Lenya. Weill never left America, mounting shows on Broadway and writing scores for Hollywood, while still pursuing a classical career.
Weill’s music will get a local boost this Tuesday night, March 19, when newcomer Bremner Duthie reveals his tribute to the late composer at the Mid City Theatre at 8:00 p.m. in a show titled “From Berlin to Broadway: Bremner Sings the Cabaret Songs of Kurt Weill.” The show may win the award for alliteration and the longest show title of recent memory.
“This is the first time in about eight years I’ve done a recital of his music,” admits the singer-actor. “But I’ve been touring a show with his music in it that I must’ve done about 300 times.”
Duthie, with his bald pate and intense manner, got rave notices at his performance of “Kabaret ’33” for the 2011 New Orleans International Fringe Festival. The interesting and riveting performance included music of Weill and others being performed by the last member of a doomed cabaret troupe in Nazi Germany. Shortly after that, Duthie, enraptured with the city returned to his New York City home and moved lock, stock and barrel to New Orleans. He’s been here ever since.
Unfortunately, his move was about one month past the closing of the city’s premiere (and only dedicated) cabaret performance space, Le Chat Noir. The good news is that Duthie has played yet another New Orleans Fringe Festival this past November and that Mid City Theatre has elected to have cabaret shows for the entire month of March.
“I actually am a little obsessed with Kurt Weill,” Duthie admits. “He amazes me so much in the breadth of what he does – a lot of it is so good.”
A student of Weill, Duthie also is fascinated with his choice of writing partners. “He always picked these really complicated songwriters to work with,” he notes. “He always went with these people who would give him these weird lyrics. He was trying to be political, but he continued to be strident.”
Weill understood what it meant to be a success in America, Duthie continues. “He really wanted to work on Broadway and he knew he needed to do popular work too. He did it for 15 years,” he recalls.
Duthie will bring out the crowd favorites like “Mack the Knife,” culled from Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” and made famous by the likes of Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong as well as the ballad “Speak Low” from the Broadway musical “One Touch of Venus.” But he also has some surprises in store for his audience.
He intends to sing some very rare pieces including a set of four songs Weill set to the poems of Walt Whitman.
Also, he promises to give his own take on some Weill classics like “Speak Low.” “When I was working with my piano player who I recorded it with me, we were just playing with it and slowed it down,” he states. “It became a really beautiful take on the song.”
“From Berlin to Broadway: Bremner Sings the Cabaret Songs of Kurt Weill” will play at the Mid City Theatre, 3540 Toulouse Street, Tuesday, March 19 at 8:00 p.m. Call 504-488-1460 from 2:00-6:00 p.m. for more information. Tickets are available online by clicking here.
