Sing, Lola, Sing! MITEM 14
Musical drama – the play by Oleksandr Chepalov based on the novel “Professor Unrat” by Heinrich Mann and the film “The Blue Angel”
The play of a contemporary Ukrainian author Oleksandr Chepalov is based on Heinrich Mann’s famous socio-critical novel “Professor Unrat, or The End of a Tyrant” and the 1930 cult film “The Blue Angel” directed by Josef von Sternberg, a well-known Austrian cinematographer. The main part of Professor Unrat was excellently performed in that film by Emil Jannings; the spectacular début of Marlene Dietrich as Lola initiated her film-star career in Hollywood.
According to the laws of the genre, the plot of the musical drama is romantic and fairly lucid. An enticing singer Lola is the star of the port cabaret “The Blue Angel”. Among her admirers and fans are young students of the local high school who invariably spend their evenings at her performances. Once an elderly professor of Latin - a misanthrope, a petty tyrant and a bore nicknamed Unrat (Filthy) decides to visit that dubious nightclub himself to put an end to his students’ improper behaviour. There, he gets acquainted with the singer Rosa Froehlich alias Lola whom he regards as an embodiment of wickedness. Paradoxically, Unrat himself starts frequenting the cabaret and forgets his mission of the champion of morality, He, too, like many other men, falls victim to Lola’s fatal charms. Since then, the life of that stern moralist has turned topsy-turvy.
Music and lyrics for the play have been written by actors Oleksandr Behma and Mykhailo Kukuiuk.