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''Happy End'' is a three-act musical comedy by Kurt Weill, Elisabeth Hauptmann, and Bertolt Brecht which first opened in Berlin at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm on September 2, 1929. It closed after seven performances. In 1977 it premiered on Broadway, where it ran for 75 performances. ==Production history== After the success of Weill and Brecht's previous collaboration, ''The Threepenny Opera'', the duo devised this musical, written by Elisabeth Hauptmann under the pseudonym of Dorothy Lane. Hauptmann's sources included, among others, ''Major Barbara.''〔Weill, Kurt; Brecht, Bertolt; Lane, Dorothy; and Feingold, Michael.(''Happy end: a melodrama with songs'', Samuel French, Inc, ISBN 0-573-68190-2, "A True Story with a Happy End" by Michael Feingold, pp. 4–6 )''Happy end: a melodrama with songs'', accessed February 13, 2010〕 The story is reminiscent of, but not the source of, the better-known musical ''Guys and Dolls'', which is based on Damon Runyon's short story, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown".〔 The debut was plagued by problems. Hauptmann never finished the book of the musical, the play's opening debut saw cast member Helene Weigel reading from a Communist pamphlet on stage, and it was met with near-unanimous pans from the German press and deemed a total failure.〔 Nevertheless, the musical was subsequently produced in Europe, the first time in Munich in 1956. Successive productions included Hamburg in 1957, London in 1965 at the Royal Court Theatre and Frankfurt in 1983, along with a 1979 German film version. The musical premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on May 7, 1977 and closed on July 10, 1977 after 75 performances. Directed by Robert Kalfin and Patricia Birch and staged by Birch, the cast starred Christopher Lloyd, Grayson Hall and Meryl Streep. A 1984 production by Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage was televised as part of the short-lived "America's Musical Theater" series on PBS.〔("History, Arena Stage, 1983/84 Season" ), arena-stage.org, accessed February 13, 2010〕 The musical was produced at Center Stage in Baltimore, Maryland in February 1995, using the English adaptation by Michael Feingold (as did the Arena Stage production).〔 Rousuck, J. Wynn. "'Happy End' serves up a brew of Brecht light", ''Baltimore Sun'', February 24, 1995〕 A production at The Pacific Resident Theatre in 2005 garnered a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Revival of 2005. A 2006 production by San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater used the English adaptation by Michael Feingold, and also had a CD cast recording. This version was performed off-off-Broadway in New York in 2007.〔Maleshefski, Tiffany. (" ''Happy End'' review" ) theatermania.com, June 19, 2006〕 〔Sommer, Elyse. ("''Happy End'' review" ), curtainup.com, April 29, 2007〕〔Connema, Richard. ("Review ''Happy End'', San Francisco" ), talkinbroadway.com, June 22, 2006〕 Despite the poor initial reception of the play, several musical numbers have seen continued popularity, including "Surabaya Johnny", sung by Lillian Holiday and "Bilbao Song". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Happy End (musical)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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