Gertie Lawrence and the performance of her career!
Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 07/24/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"LADY IN THE DARK is one of the seminal Broadway works of the 1940's. Providing Gertrude Lawrence with her biggest Stateside success, and also featuring talented up-and-comer Danny Kaye, the show would run for close to 500 performances. The story concerns the outwardly-confident yet inwardly-troubled Liza Elliott as she subjects herself to sessions of psycho-analysis, in order to understand and overcome her reluctance to commit to her fiancee.
The score by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin is both lush and gritty, full of juicy character numbers like "One Life to Live", "The Princess of Pure Delight", "My Ship" and the showstopping "Saga of Jenny". This recording features all the main numbers performed by original stars Lawrence and Kaye. Added as a bonus are Danny Kaye's renditions of some of Lawrence's songs; as well as Hildegarde's version of "The Saga of Jenny"."