Kurt Weill(1900-1950)

Weill emigrated from Germany to the US with the rise of Nazism. He was known for his use of highly unusual subject matter in musicals. Few of them were true hits. "The Threepenny Opera", written in cooperation with Bertolt Brecht, which premiered in Germany (1928), introduced the song "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" and became a hit. In its first American production on Broadway, it flopped in 1933, but became a smash off-Broadway hit in Marc Blitzstein's 1954 translation, running more than five years. Weill's widow Lotte Lenya received a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1956 for playing "Jenny" in this version of the play.