When Bernstein, Sondheim, And Robbins Tried To Adapt Brecht

It was a decade after West Side Story, and Jerome Robbins got the idea to make one of Bertolt Brecht’s didactic plays into a musical. Though Sondheim in particular required some convincing, it eventually became a promising project, with John Guare writing the book and Zero Mostel engaged to star. Finally, the piece was set to premiere on Broadway in 1968, and then 1969, as A Pray by Blecht. (The title was Lenny’s.) Never happened, of course. Jesse Green recounts the story of how it came together and then fell apart. – The New York Times