Flashback Friday: Who Knew? Sigourney Weaver and Chris Durang Had a German Phase Before Vanya Made Them Russian
Take a Look at Sigourney and Christopher and Bertolt and Kurt…before those first two came to Broadway.
The devoutly anti-capitalist Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill collaborations that the pair studied as students at the Yale School of Drama in the early '70s (the days when Meryl Streep also roamed the halls) inspired Durang and Weaver to parody their work in a double bill of two ship-sinking one-acts they called Titanic and Das Lusitania Songspiel.
Even after Weaver's Hollywood success in the '80s with the Alien franchise, she never forgot about Brecht or Durang; so when SNL came a-callin', she insisted on having her MFA BFF by her side…and they even convinced the show to let them do five minutes of Das Lusitania at the very end.
Take a look here at their ode to Brecht in an opening monologue where they threaten the audience with a performance of Mahagonny. Just try not to stare directly a Sigourney's pantsuit — it might blind you.