Happy End

Pacific Resident Theatre presents Happy End, a musical comedy with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill. This play was the first piece produced by the award winning PRT company when it formed in 1985. Dan Bonnell directs, with musical directio by Caroline Magnini.

Set in 1919 Chicago, head gangster Bill Cracker uses Salvation Army gal Lillian Holiday, to hide out from the cops. The exotic score includes some of Brecht/ Weill’s most dazzling songs (made popular by Weill’s wife Lotte Lenya, who created the role of Jenny in The Three Penny Opera) including “Surabaya Johnny” as well as “Sailors-Tango” and “Bilboa Song.” The story revolves around an array of Brechtian characters with strong social, political, and economic differences. The menacing mob boss, the ensemble of singing streetwalkers, vagrants, pious do-gooders, drunks and the respectable unemployed are wrapped up in this comedic musical created by two of the greatest collaborators in musical history.