DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
Musical in two acts | Book by Michael Weller | Music by Lucy Simon | Lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers | Based on the novel by Boris Pasternak | German by Sabine Ruflair (lyrics) and Jürgen Hartmann (book) | German-language premiere 2018 | Playing time approx. 3 1/2 hours
Love in times of revolution: With "Doctor Zhivago" Boris Pasternak not only created an epoch-making novel of world renown, but also the template for David Lean's Oscar-winning Hollywood film adaptation with Omar Sharif. Now the love story about the poet doctor Zhivago can be experienced as a large-format musical.
Growing up in the Russian Empire, Jurij Zhivago finds himself caught between the fronts in the turmoil of war and revolution. As an independent free spirit, he stands not only between two regimes, but also between two women, his wife Tonia and the mysterious Lara. But Jurij is not Lara's only admirer: alongside him, Lara's childhood friend Viktor Komarovskij and her husband Pascha Antipov, leader of the Red Army, fight for her heart.
Pasternak himself could no longer witness the success of his work, in the Soviet Union his novel was reviled and banned for 30 years. In 1958 he even turned down the Nobel Prize for Literature out of love for his homeland and died in seclusion two years later. With her Broadway musical, two-time Grammy winner Lucy Simon is now bringing his greatest work back to life and creating a contemporary sound that integrates emotional ballads as well as the overwhelming Russian tonal language.