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Concept
The Dancing Years
Summary
The Dancing Years is a musical with book and music by Ivor Novello and lyrics by Christopher Hassall. The story takes place in Vienna, from 1911 until 1938. It follows the life of a penniless Jewish composer and his love for two women of different social classes, with an ending set against the background of Nazi persecution.
The piece opened in early 1939 in London's West End, starring Novello. Like many of Novello's musicals, The Dancing Years was given an expensive, spectacular production, with several scene changes and a large cast. When theatres in London closed at the start of the Second World War, the show went on tour in Britain for the next three years. Censorship originally prevented the inclusion of the Nazi element, but by the time The Dancing Years reopened at the Adelphi Theatre in 1942 it had been reinstated.
In 1911, Rudi Kleber, a penniless young Jewish composer, plays the piano at an Austrian country inn, where he has been friends, since childhood with the innkeeper's daughter, Grete; they pledge to marry someday. Maria, an operetta star, arrives at the inn with her older admirer and patron, Prince Charles Metterling, who wants to marry her, but she and Rudi fall in love; he composes successful operettas for her. Three years later, Grete returns from England and has become a musical theatre performer. Maria is jealous and overhears Rudi proposing to Grete in jest, as she has an officer boyfriend, Franzl. Maria misunderstands and does not wait to hear Grete reject the proposal. Maria returns to Vienna and immediately marries Prince Charles, although she is pregnant.
Maria bears Rudi's son, Otto, who is brought up to believe that he is Metterling's son. A dozen years later, Maria introduces Otto to Rudi. Rudi and Maria discover that they are still love with each other, and Maria is unhappy in her marriage, but Rudi realizes that he cannot break up her marriage for the sake of their son. After another decade passes, in 1938 Rudi is arrested by the Nazis for helping Jews to escape Austria, but Maria uses her husband's connections to help him.
Official source
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