Production History
46th Street Theatre, Broadway, New York City
October 7, 1948 — May 14, 1949 (252 performances)
Director: Elia Kazan
Conductor: Joseph Littau
Susan and Sam Cooper (Nanette Fabray and Ray Middleton, center) test their marriage on a Caribbean cruise during New Year’s Eve. | Photo: Vandamm
The couple’s marital troubles play out in a satirical ballet scene in commedia dell’arte style (“Punch and Judy Get a Divorce”). | Photo: Vandamm
Review
“Love Life is subtitled ‘a vaudeville,’ and a touch of that virtually extinct genre is present. Actually, this musical comedy is a chronicle and leans towards the cavalcade type of drama, but with a difference, since both its vaudeville and chronicle character are in the service of that kind of documentary and pedagogic drama that used to be called a Lehrstueck in Germany. … [Love Life] is pregnant with possibilities for intelligent non-realistic theater.”
— John Gassner, Forum, February 1949
Susan (Nanette Fabray, center) and the suffragettes insist on equality for women (“Women’s Club Blues”). | Photo: credit unknown
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
April 16 — 19, 1987 (4 performances)
Director: Brent Wagner
Conductor: Mitchell Krieger
Originally cut during the Broadway tryouts, “The Locker Room” was reinstated for the Michigan production. | Photo: Smith
Review
“It was something like discovering a Renoir that had been kept under wraps for 40 years. … One of the intriguing questions raised by the Michigan production is what would have happened if Weill and Lerner had remained a team.”
— Paul Salsini, Milwaukee Journal, April 26, 1987
Minstrels review the use of astrology to find the right mate (“Madame Zuzu”) during the final scene. | Photo: Smith
American Musical Theater Festival, Philadelphia
June 10 — 24, 1990 (16 performances)
Director: Barry Harman
Conductor: Robert Kapilow
A new principal character, L.L. Swank, was created for the Philly production by Thomas Babe. The production also reinstated "Susan's Dream," cut during Broadway tryouts. | Photo: Garvin
Review
“The most conspicuous change is the creation of a new principal character by Thomas Babe … . L.L. Swank, a red-nosed clown in a tatterdemalion jacket who valiantly strives to get the increasingly disenchanted Coopers back together, serves as a magician, illusionist, commentator and participant … Swank helps provide clarity and cohesion to the proceedings, but he is given little to do that jibes with his merry makeup.”
— Hari, Variety, June 20, 1990
Susan (Debbie Shapiro, center) asks Sam (Richard Muenz, center) to join her at the springtime dance (“Green-Up Time”). | Photo: Garvin
Opera North, Leeds, England
January 24 — February 3, 1996 (7 performances; 8 performances on tour)
Director: Caroline Gawn
Conductor: Wyn Davies
Children comment on Susan’s state of mind in Act I (“Mother’s Getting Nervous”). | Photo: Barda
Sam and Susan Cooper (Alan Oke and Margaret Preece) in an unhappy marriage. | Photo: Barda
Review
“Equally crucial to the success of any American musical is the style. The Opera North chorus here steps its way politely through the raunchy ‘Women’s Club Blues,’ giving us neither the real thing nor an amusing send-up. That said, the vaudeville numbers were in general more striking than the intermingled episodes tracing the marriage of Sam and Susan Cooper …”
— Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph, January 29, 1996
A hobo (Geoffrey Dolton) sings his message that love is the only answer, but nobody listens (“Love Song”). | Photo: Barda
Theater Freiburg, Germany
December 9, 2017 — April 13, 2018 (13 performances in repertory); revived for 7 performances in Bern, Switzerland
Director: Joan Anton Rechi
Musical Director: James Holmes
Conductor: Daniel Carter
Sam and Susan Cooper (David Arnsperger and Rebecca Jo Loeb) are tempted by other suitors at the end of Act I. | Photo: Hupfeld
A quartet sings about the conflicts between love and money (“Economics”). | Photo: Hupfeld
Review
“The revolving stage is a screening room in the front and a vaudeville theater in the back. Susan and Samuel Cooper watch their lives on a movie screen. The commentary numbers are staged as charming homages to Hollywood: the male octet tricked out as tap-dancing Charlie Chaplins [for ‘Progress’] or the four snaky-hipped Frankensteins warning about the effects of industrialization on love [in ‘Economics’].”
— Georg Rüdiger, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 11, 2017
The story plays out on screen mixed with Hollywood references. | Photo: Hupfeld
Sam moves into a hotel room, where he exults in his newfound bachelor freedoms (“This is the Life”). | Photo: Hupfeld