Lady in the Dark (1954)

• 80%
• 1954
• Drama
• Max Liebman
• Ann Sothern
• James Daly
• Luella Gear

mycroftmy Lady in the Dark is a musical with music by Kurt Weill, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was produced by Sam Harris. The protagonist, Liza Elliott, is the unhappy female editor of a fashion magazine, Allure, who is undergoing psychoanalysis. The musical ran on Broadway in 1941, in the United Kingdom in 1981, and was also made into a 1944 film and this 1954 television special. The musical was broadcast on NBC Television on September 25, 1954, as part of an intermittent series under the umbrella title Max Liebman Presents. Ann Sothern played Liza, and Carleton Carpenter played Russell. The musical's theme of psychoanalysis is said to be based on the author Moss Hart's own experiences with psychoanalyst Gregory Zilboorg. Except for the final song, all the music in the play is heard in three extended dream sequences: the Glamour Dream, the Wedding Dream, and the Circus Dream which, to some extent, become three small operettas integrated into a straight play. The final song, "My Ship", functions as a leitmotif for Liza's insecurity: as each dream commences, a snippet of the tune is heard, as it is a haunting melody which Liza recognizes but cannot name, or sing with words, until her anxiety is resolved.