Happy End follows the struggle of the passionate Salvation Army lieutenant Lillian Holiday to save the soul of down-and-out mobster Bill Cracker, whose gang is led by the mysterious Lady in Grey (AKA The Fly). Soon the gangster and and "Hallelujah Lil" fall in love as chaos erupts in both their groups and builds to a dramatic showdown on Christmas Eve. After the success of Weill and Brecht's previous collaboration, The Threepenny Opera, the duo devised this musical, written by Elisabeth Hauptmann under the pseudonym of Dorothy Lane. Hauptmann's sources included, among others, Major Barbara - the story of a Salvation Army officer who falls in love with a gangster. The story is reminiscent of, but not the source of, the more well-known musical Guys and Dolls (which was based on Damon Runyon's short story, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown.") The debut was plagued by problems. Hauptmann never finished the book of the musical, the play's opening debut saw cast member Helene Weigel reading from a Communist pamphlet on stage, and it was met with near-unanimous pans from the German press and deemed a total failure. Nevertheless, the play saw several revivals, the first in Munich in 1956. Successive incarnations included a 1957 revival in Hamburg, a 1965 revival in London, and a 1983 revival in Frankfurt as well as a 1979 German film version. An English adaptation by Michael Feingold also exists and has been performed in venues including New York, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.
1. Prologue
2. Bilbao Song, The
3. Lieutenants Of The Lord
4. March Ahead
5. Time In A Shot Glass
6. Sailor's Tango, The
7. Entr'Acte
8. Sailor's Tango, The (Reprise)
9. Brother, Give Yourself A Shove
10. 1 Song Of The Big Shot
11. Don't Be Afraid
12. In Our Childhood's Bright Endeavor
13. Liquor Dealer's Dream, The
14. Mandalay Song, The
15. Goddam It
16. Surabaya Johnny
17. Song Of The Big Shot (Reprise)
18. In Our Childhood's Bright Endeavor
19. Epilogue
20. Bilbao Song, The
Happy End
