Articles and news related to the Brecht and Weill program

Publication: Broadway World
By:
Date: December 13, 2024

Legendary cabaret artist Ute Lemper brought Kurt Weill’s works to vibrant contemporary life at Joe’s Pub, celebrating his upcoming 125th birthday.

For over four decades, Ute Lemper has stood as arguably the definitive interpreter of Kurt Weill’s music, combining fierce artistic integrity with a deep understanding of the historical and cultural forces that shaped his work. Her commitment to preserving and reimagining Weill’s legacy began in 1980s Berlin, where her groundbreaking recordings helped revive interest in his music. On November 26 and 29, anticipating Weill’s 125th birthday in 2025, Lemper brought decades of insight to Joe’s Pub, demonstrating why she remains unmatched in her ability to make these historic works speak to contemporary audiences.

Lemper transformed Joe’s Pub into something between a Weimar cabaret and a historical salon, creating an intimate evening that was equal parts performance, history lesson, and political commentary. Opening with “Pirate Jenny” from The Threepenny Opera, she immediately established the evening’s central tension between past and present. “I’m looking around and I’m not happy. Something is not right with this world,” she declared, before diving into a scathing critique of privilege that connected Weimar-era concerns to contemporary anxieties. Her interpretation moved fluidly between German and English, her delivery transforming from eerie grace to controlled fury as Jenny imagines violent revenge against her oppressors.

Lemper’s genius lies in her ability to make historical context feel urgently relevant. “Welcome to Weimar,” she announced, rattling off prices in millions of marks for basic necessities, including ”350 million paper marks for a loaf of bread,” drawing explicit parallels to modern inflation and democratic instability. Her reference to Hitler’s 1924 trial, noting how “he was so convincing he almost put the republic on trial,” landed with chilling resonance. “The Saga of Jenny” became a masterclass in temporal dialogue. Lemper transformed what could be a simple cautionary tale about female decisiveness into a nuanced exploration of agency and consequences. Her delivery of lines about Jenny’s memoirs causing wives to shoot their husbands created a complex commentary on female empowerment and its backlash.

The evening traced Weill’s artistic evolution through three crucial periods: Weimar Germany, Paris exile, and finally America. Lemper captured the dark irony of “Army Song,” while her interpretation of “Youkali,” written during Weill’s sojourn in Paris, combined dream and lament. Her voice carried both hope and pathos in lines that translate to “It’s a dream, a folly / There’s no such place as Youkali,” making the utopian vision feel impossible yet necessary.

Her command of the diseuse style — emphasizing dramatic delivery while maintaining musical sensibilities — particularly shone in songs like “Stranger Here Myself,” where Venus’s bewilderment at modern conventions becomes both comedy and social commentary. The performer’s interaction with the audience was masterful, asking for language preferences, and incorporating an audience member into the action. When discussing how Weill “started to call himself Kurt Weill” (with American pronunciation) in the United States, she touched on themes of immigration and reinvention that resonated powerfully with current debates.

After 40 years of performing this music, Lemper proves herself not just a performer but a crucial cultural translator. Her achievement lies in showing how Weill’s music, born from specific historical circumstances, transcends its moment to address universal themes of justice, love, and human dignity. In her hands, these songs might as well have been written for today.

Learn more about Ute Lemper and where to follow her at www.utelemper.com

See more upcoming shows at Joe’s Pub on their website.

Click here to read this article on Broadway World’s site.

Publication: Record Collector Magazine
By: Paul Davies
Date: 27/4/24

Review of Time Traveler – A Retrospective of Ute’s Life and Music
London, St Martin’s In The Field Church

A bewitching artiste with spellbinding stagecraft, Lemper confirmed her star status in autobiographical storytelling encompassing the arc of her storied career.

Sharing personal Marlene Dietrich anecdotes and recounting the toll that Chicago took, her tales were punctuated by piano and double-bass on sophisticated jazz from the Weimar Republic to the West End, plus her current Time Traveller. Oozing sassy star quality and class, she commanded the venue with her startling vocal range, passionate delivery and magnetic presence, saluting her ecstatic fans on exiting to fervent applause.

Publication: Broadway World
By: Sharon Ellman
Date: February 11, 2024

As if a troubadour of old, Ute Lemper takes us on a historical journey through song

Stepping into Carnegie Hall’s presentation of Ute Lemper, WEIMAR BERLIN AND AFTER THE EXODUS on February 9, 2024 was as if leaping into the distant past. The show, part of a festival of Fall of The Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice, delves into the arts and culture of this short yet important period in the world of innovative art and culture. As if a troubadour of old, the star of the show, Ute Lemper took the filled audience on a journey through song.  Theatergoers voyaged through the story of German post World War I economic hardship, coming into the sunshine of freedom, democracy, capitalistic decadence and finally devoured by the darkness of Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Lemper narrates as she moves musically from the economic poverty of the uncontrolled inflation of the German economy in post World War I. Along with her band, Vana Gierig (piano), Matthew Parrish (Bass), Todd Turkisher (Drums) and Cyrus Beroukhim (violin) she enters the stage, immersed within the center of the audience, dressed as impoverished street musicians to begin the story of the poverty and out of control hyperinflation which overwhelmed German lives in 1923.

The audience is then joyfully carried into 1924 when the creation of the Reichsmark stabilizes the inflation and Germans begin a life of fun.  “Divine decadence”, as Sally Bowles declared in Cabaret, was merely the icing on the Weimar cake.  Fun, frolic and morality all vied for the spotlight now. Lemper’s intense and emotionally powerful vocals brought us from the self indulgence of the decade onward with her renditions of “The Ballad of Mack The Knife” and “Life’s a Swindle” to “Pirate Jenny.” Channeling Marlene Dietrich, the songstress oozed the famed seductive screen siren’s androgynous sex appeal that marked a revolution during the Weimar period.  Lemper’s low and sultry English as well German language performances of “Just a Gigolo”, “Sex Appeal” and “Ich bin die fesche Lola” displayed the overtly sexual culture that had evolved in the freedom of society that was the late 20’s and early 30’s in Germany.  She aptly referred to this time as “dancing on the edge of the volcano.”

But by 1933 onward, all civilian rights and the independence of individuals to live their lives as they wished was slowly but surely curtailed by Hitler and the Nazi Party.  Ute Lemper  portrayed the music of those that ran into exile, like composer Hanns Eisler as well as the other composers, artists, singers, poets and writers who despite remaining hopeful were doomed to the ghettos and concentration camps that foretold death.

Throughout the performance, the fair-haired chanteuse changed costume from drab street musician attire, to black gown, jumpsuit, sexy red evening attire and ending with a long black somber covering jacket all while remaining on the stage – unbelievably peeling off one outfit after another.   Her physical transformation was like that of a chameleon adapting to its environment – each time clad in clothing that represented the ensuing change of political and hence cultural attitude.   From her appearance, we saw the Weimar Republic begin its rise from the ashes of the horrors of World War I, peak in cultural and societal openness and then just as swiftly crumbled due to the destruction of the country’s democratic government.

This reviewer was overwhelmed by the emotionally intense performance that was Ute Lemper, WEIMAR BERLIN AND AFTER THE EXODUS.  Using the music of the time as the conduit, Ute Lemperweaved a tale that began in darkness, became a  pinnacle of creative light and then succumbed to the murky depths of destruction nearly a century ago.  This very unusual cabaret production was much an homage to what could have been and what should have been if it had not been destroyed by the Nazis. Ute Lemper, WEIMAR BERLIN AND AFTER THE EXODUS featured the renowned singer Ute Lemper, with her band consisting of Vana Gierig (piano), Matthew Parrish (Bass), Todd Turkisher (Drums) and Cyrus Beroukhim (violin).

Find great shows to see on the Carnegie Hall website HERE.

This past year has us missing our favorite performers on stage, but fortunately Ute has TWO fabulous Digital Streaming Shows to catch online, take a look:

  1. All That Jazz (Online on June 5, 2021, see below for times)
    From the rooftops over Manhattan… Ute Lemper sings her most famous and loved songs from Weill, Brel, Piaf, Joni Mitchell, Romy Schneider and Kander & Ebb – a repertoire that she has developed through almost 4 decades of musical performances around the world, from Berlin to Paris, from London to New York.

Click here to book your tickets for this June 5 stream at Fane Online now.

2. Rendezvous With Marlene (Online through May 31, from Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope Series)

Rendezvous with Marlene is based on a three-hour phone exchange in 1987 between legendary actress Marlene Dietrich and Ute Lemper. At the time, Dietrich was living as a recluse in her Paris apartment, while Lemper was being celebrated by Parisian audiences for her performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. In this one-woman show, Lemper shares Dietrich’s story, channels her emotions, and celebrates songs that highlight various chapters of her career, from the Berlin cabaret years to her later collaborations with Burt Bacharach. In one of the most poignant periods of her life, Dietrich was especially vocal against the Nazis during World War II, renouncing her German citizenship and passionately supporting Jews and other dissidents who—like her—faced discrimination and retribution. Musical selections include “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “Falling in Love Again,” and “Lili Marleen.”

Click here to Stream this performance, now through May 31, 2021.

 

Click here (and scroll down slightly) to view the archive of the livestream performance and program from Ute’s living room, which was part of the Carnegie Hall Live Streaming series, honoring the 75th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps with songs of rebellion, hope, defiance, and life-affirming resilience written during the Holocaust.

Accompanying Ute for this live performance of excerpts from Songs for Eternity, were Vana Gierig on Piano and Max Lemper on guitar, and the program featured a live conversation on Zoom with Orly Beigel in Mexico City (whose mother survived Bergen Belsen by being on the Death Train at Farsleben) and others.