{"id":2533,"date":"2025-03-26T18:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T18:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/kate-baldwin-takes-on-the-story-of-a-230-year-marriage-with-love-life\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T18:57:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T18:57:18","slug":"kate-baldwin-takes-on-the-story-of-a-230-year-marriage-with-love-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/kate-baldwin-takes-on-the-story-of-a-230-year-marriage-with-love-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate Baldwin Takes On The Story of a 230 Year Marriage With Love Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kate Baldwin (center) in rehearsal with the company of Love Life<\/em> Benjamin Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nellie Forbush, Dolly Levi, Anna Leonowens, Marian Paroo\u2014and now, <\/span>finally<\/span><\/i>, Susan Cooper.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On Broadway, Kate Baldwin<\/a> has done a modest handful of roles\u2014like a Tony-nominated turn as Sharon McLonergan in the 2009 revival of <\/span>Finian\u2019s Rainbow<\/span><\/i>\u2014but she is best known as the go-to singer for a gargantuan gallery of musical theater heroines. How many that could be, she hasn\u2019t a clue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI turned 50 this year,\u201d she tells <\/span>Observer<\/span><\/i>, \u201cand I\u2019ve been doing them for 28 years. I lost count a long time ago.\u201d One role, however, she is positive she has never performed is Susan Cooper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That chore awaits her March 26-30 when she and Brian Stokes Mitchell<\/a> co-star in the next Encores! offering at New York City Center, <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i><\/a>, often cited as one of the first concept musicals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was overwhelmed by the scope of what the plot was attempting to cover,\u201d Baldwin admits. \u201cIn 1948 when the show was first done on Broadway, it went back 150 years. Our version takes it up to present time, and that makes it 250 years. We start in 1791 with the birth of the nation and the start of the marriage of Sam and Susan Cooper, who struggle to cope with the changing social mores of the times. They never age as a couple from all of this, but the country does.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Baldwin is comfortable within the confines of her character. \u201cSusan starts out very peppy in her own little cocoon of marriage and family life,\u201d she says. \u201cThen, the outside world\u2014the shifting landscape of American society\u2014starts to tear her family apart. She responds to this by reaching out and questioning. She doesn\u2019t shrink from changes. She embraces them. She wants what she wants, all of it\u2014a job and a loving relationship with her husband. This is the modern woman of 1948.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell in rehearsal for Love Life<\/em> Benjamin Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this role, Nanette Fabray won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical (the second ever presented, after Mary Martin\u2019s Nellie Forbush), but in her later years she had no memory of the award or the role\u2014the result of a severe concussion she suffered when she was knocked to the ground by a spooked elephant during the filming of 1978\u2019s <\/span>Harper Valley PTA<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Love Life<\/span><\/i>, a love story played against churning historical events, is the one and only teaming of Kurt Weill<\/a> and Alan Jay Lerner. Producer Cheryl Crawford suggested this unexpected pairing to give Lerner a break from his sputtering early collaboration with lifelong partner Frederick Loewe (they created at different speeds). Working with Weill helped remedy that situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Love Life<\/span><\/i> opened during a period when a musicians\u2019 union strike led to disputes in the recording industry. As a result, <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i>\u2014as well as Frank Loesser\u2019s <\/span>Where\u2019s Charley?<\/span><\/i>\u2014received no official cast album. But a couple of Weill\u2019s numbers (\u201cHere I\u2019ll Stay,\u201d \u201cMr. Right\u201d) did manage to penetrate the hit parade, and Lerner reworked one set of lyrics (\u201cI Remember It Well\u201d) for <\/span>Gigi<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe score is full of exciting variety,\u201d says Baldwin. \u201cThere\u2019s a ballet in it, there\u2019s an aria in it, there\u2019s beautiful madrigal singing and incredible vaudeville numbers. Weill\u2019s melodies are outstanding. They\u2019ve lived five years in my subconscious, since we first looked at them in 2020.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lerner once told Weill\u2019s widow, the singer Lotte Lenya, that he wished he loved his book and lyrics as much as he loved Weill\u2019s music. \u201cHe was only about 27 years old when he did <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i>,\u201d Baldwin points out. \u201cAnd Weill was not young at all. He\u2019d already done <\/span>Lady in the Dark<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Street Scene<\/span><\/i>. He died a year after <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i> in 1949. His last score was <\/span>Lost in the Stars<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to Weill Foundation officials, <\/span>Love Life <\/span><\/i>was beloved by both authors. They wanted to continue to work on it and figure it out. Lerner said toward the end of his days that he wanted to rewrite and do it again. I feel like we\u2019re giving them the opportunity now with this Encores!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The director of this edition is Victoria Clark<\/a>, who usually wins Tony Awards as an actress (<\/span>The Light in the Piazza<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Kimberly Akimbo<\/span><\/i><\/a>). \u201cI trust no one more,\u201d Baldwin says. \u201cShe comes from a performance background and thinks first as an actor. She has a holistic approach to the piece.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Originally, <\/span>Love Life <\/span><\/i>was scheduled as part of the 2020 season of Encores! but the performances were cancelled as a result of the pandemic shutdown. \u201cWhen we rehearsed it five years ago, we had one run-through on the City Center stage\u2014that was March 12, 2020,\u201d Baldwin recalls.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was exciting about that day was that one got to see the disparate parts of the show, all the big production numbers that didn\u2019t involve Sam and Susan Cooper. I got to see all these numbers for the first time. Theater scenes were being rehearsed in one corner, the vaudeville numbers were rehearsed in another room, and the ballet was being rehearsed downstairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, we got to see the whole show put together. If you think about it, we didn\u2019t now at the time when we\u2019d perform it. We thought we were going on a hiatus for maybe two weeks, maybe a month, at the time. We had no idea how long it would be. When we finished that one run-through, we crossed the street for pizza and wine. And now, here we are five years later.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Buy Tickets Here\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\"Kate<\/p><\/div>\n