Berlin first-nighters gathered last week in the Theater am Schiflbauerdarnm for an opening of note. Flimsy programs purchased from elderly ushers announced that they were to witness Happy End, a Comedy of Gang Life in Chicago by Elizabeth Hauptmann with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bert Brecht, German translator of John Gay's immortal Beggars' Opera. An italicized footnote explained: "the comedy is based on a story by Dorothy Lane which appeared in The J. L. S. Weekly, published at St. Louis, Mo."
Germans in the know whispered to friends that...
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