LOVE LIFE: Marriage, American Style — Review

Come one, come some, and step right up to what might be the apotheosis of the City Center Encores! project: the first New York staging of Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s Love Life since its premiere in 1948. The grandfather of the concept musical, nearly lost to time without a published book or recording, promises the niche, almost academic experience Encores! has lately forgone in favor of guaranteed crowd-pleasers. Handsomely directed by Victoria Clark and with stellar lead performances from Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell, the production likely makes the best possible case for the material, which follows a never-aging married couple through three centuries of American innovation. But after its run ends on Sunday, it’s probably best to put this one back on the shelf.

Which is not to say it doesn’t offer certain pleasures. Vocals aside, most come from seeing Lerner (who wrote the book and score) attempt to bust through typical narrative structures while mending his then-recently broken heart, and hearing Weill’s (who co-wrote the music and lyrics) musical take on America writ large. And there’s a naughty thrill in noting where their successors clearly took note.

Prompted by their children (Andrea Rosa Guzman and Christopher Jordan) to reunite onstage, the now-divorced Sam (Mitchell) and Susan (Baldwin) Cooper consider their relationship, beginning in 1791, when the family moved to small-town Connecticut to open a furniture store. In the tender “Here I’ll Stay” (which often sounds like Cabaret’s pineapple song), the honest Sam professes his love of Susan over the call of success, “for that land is a sandy illusion / it’s the theme of a dream gone astray.” Thus begins Love Life’s exploration of the push-pull between love and emotion versus the cold wheels of progress.

Structured as a long vaudeville routine, bookended by magic acts (the last of which, on a tightrope atop Ryan Howell’s set, is genuinely breathtaking), their scenes are cut with satirical songs with titles like “Progress” and “Economics.” These two, delivered in fun barbershop mode, flirt with the uncomfortable energy of Weill’s Threepenny Opera, but without his collaborator Bertolt Brecht’s unrepentant causticness. Surreal ensemble numbers, like “Susan’s Dream” (reminiscent of “Poor Baby” from Company) and “His and Hers, a Divorce Ballet” (ditto that Sondheim musical’s “Tick Tock”), are lyrically choreographed by JoAnn M. Hunter, and bring a welcome flair of fantasy.

The Coopers’ story advances through the decades, Sam’s inkling of ambition egged on by the Industrial Revolution while women’s movements drive Susan away from the gendered confines of home. This is all fine and well, and the score’s various historical styles provide Weill opportunities to flex his versatility. But Lerner is too good a parlor-boy to really get nasty about the failures of marriage and America, and didn’t find a conceptual middle ground on which either theme could exist without being fully fleshed out. The extended finale, “The Love Life Illusion Show” (which almost certainly inspired Follies’ Loveland ending), plays as a tribunal between man and wife, but it’s hard to care about their relationship knowing so little about their particulars.

Thankfully, there’s Kate Baldwin. Where has she been? Her affect, an easy blend of mid-Atlantic honor and mischief, is perfectly suited to the role, and she has the brass, sass, and star power to knock each of her numbers out of the park, especially her final kiss-off, “Mr. Right.” And she sounds gorgeous dueting with Mitchell, especially in the comic love song, “I Remember It Well,” which Lerner later repurposed for Gigi.

The production keeps Weill and Irving Schelin’s original orchestrations, whose almost apologetic song endings could’ve used more oomph from Rob Berman’s music direction, but streamlines the book, courtesy Clark and Joe Keenan’s concert adaptation. I cannot imagine what sitting for longer than this presentation’s two-hours-forty could add to the material’s aim. But, for musical theater aficionados, or those looking to kickstart a Baldwinassance, Love Life is a likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and one presented with about as much care and talent as could be assembled.

Love Life is in performance through March 30, 2025 at New York City Center on West 55th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.