Love Life is a musical written by Kurt Weill (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics). The musical opened at the 46th Street Theatre on Broadway (now the Richard Rodgers) on October 7, 1948, and closed on May 14, 1949, after having played 252 performances. The original production starred Ray Middleton and Nanette Fabray, was directed by Elia Kazan, and choreographed by Michael Kidd. Nanette Fabray won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her performance.

Synopsis

The show told the story of a married couple, Sam and Susan Cooper, who never age as they progress from 1791 to 1948, encountering difficulties in their marriage (and thus the very fabric of marriage) as they struggle to cope with changing social mores. One of the earliest examples of the concept musical, the action of Love Life was interspersed with vaudeville-style numbers that commented on the story, in a way very similar to Cabaret (which opened in 1966).

2025 revivals

The show will be revived twice in 2025, by Opera North in Leeds, UK (the show's UK premiere and the first recording), and by New York City Center in 2025 as part of their Encores series.

Original cast and characters

Musical Numbers

Part One

Part Two

No official cast recording of Love Life has been made as of 2024; a strike at the time of the original production prevented preserving the original cast of this show, as also happened with Where's Charley?, which opened four days later, on Oct. 11, 1948. The January 2025 Opera North production should provide the first cast recording. The song "I Remember it Well" is the original version of a lyric Lerner revised for use in the 1958 film, Gigi.