Credits:

James Holmes

Description:

Kurt Weills masterpiece from his American period, *Street Scene*. Based on Elmer Rices Pulitzer Prize-winning play and produced with the collaboration of poet Langston Hughes and others, this renowned work won the first Tony Award for Best Original Score (now known as the Tony Award for Best Original Score). Weill, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933, made a sharp departure from the biting style he had displayed in his collaborations with Brecht, establishing a lyrical style that incorporated elements of 1940s jazz and swing, well-suited to the American stage. Opera arias and ensemble numbers, songs and dances from musical comedy, and dramatic dialogue intertwine masterfully. Set in front of an apartment building in New York during two sweltering days of a stifling summer, the story depicts racial and class conflicts, neighborhood gossip, and the tragedy of an exposed affair leading to murderall whil