Brian Stokes Mitchell and Kate Baldwin Photo by Joan Marcus

Love Life is one of those shows that many have longed to see, or at least get to listen to on a recording. It opened on Broadway in October of 1948, garnered a Tony Award for Nanette Fabray for her portrayal of Susan Cooper, and then closed after seven months. There was no recording then, thanks to a strike that made it impossible.

Afterwards, Love Life almost completely disappeared from view. A German language version was produced in 2017, and then, earlier this year, the British opera company Opera North put on a production that was recorded for release at some as yet unnamed date. One performance was aired on BBC Radio 3, and was available for streaming for a short time after.

With all due respect and appreciation to Opera North, Love Life is not an opera. What the Encores! production, directed by Victoria Clark (no slouch as a musical theatre artist herself), brings to the table is some much-needed musical theatre star power. And that's exactly what is happening at City Center, at least for the rest of this week, where we get a first-class pairing of Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell as the Coopers.

Both stars are in truly fine voice as they wend their way through the show's two acts that cover the time period from 1791 to 1948. Their gorgeous voices, along with the splendid singing by the rest of the cast, is reason enough for any musical theatre devotee to attend. One standout member of the altogether excellent supporting cast is John Edwards, whose exquisite bass-baritone knocks one out of the ballpark as a character known as "Hobo," commenting on the action in one of the between-scene numbers, identified in Alan Jay Lerner's book for the show as "vaudeville acts."

Obviously, the Coopers are prototypes, but in a sense, Love Life is a prototype as well, the grandparent of many other concept musicals that, by now, are considered Broadway mainstays. Shows like Cabaret, A Chorus Line, Company, and Follies can probably trace their DNA to Love Life. Even musically, Weill's choice of many different styles (ragtime, jazz, blues, swing, jitterbug, torch song, and more) are sure to remind you of specific shows and even songs that followed through the years. One number, in particular, would be repurposed by lyricist Alan Jay Lerner for Gigi, while others will trigger your brain to make connections.

The Cast Photo by Joan Marcus

There have been quite a few recordings of this one; I suggest you seek them out, if for no other reason than to dispel any notion you might have that Weill's music is always dramatically intense or sardonic. In fact, the whole first part of the show feels surprisingly a bit like Oklahoma!, a feeling that is underscored by the toe-tapping song "Green-Up Time" and JoAnn M. Hunter's accompanying Agnes de Mille-like choreography.

As time goes by, and predictably, life has a way of messing with love's promises. Sam does not stay, at least not in the sense of his pledge of settling down. A carpenter by trade, he gives up his furniture shop, first to work at the nearby furniture factory, then, later, with jobs that take him further afield for longer periods. The separation and the general march of time start to fray at the marriage, and Susan, too often alone, begins to explore a life for herself. Eventually, the Coopers grow so far apart that they decide to call it quits. At the end of Act I, Sam packs a bag and leaves. All of Act II deals with the aftermath.

The tone and feel of Act I resembles the "concept musical" format, well put together and comfortably familiar. Even the use of between-scenes vaudeville-style numbers works without anything feeling disjointed. But Act II takes on a different tone altogether. Here we enter into a realm of fantasy. The look and feel combines a sense of the circus dream from Weill's own earlier show, Lady in the Dark, with the "Loveland" sequence of Follies. The disjointedness between the two halves takes some adjusting to fully engage with, but it is intriguing to watch as Sam and Susan, miserable apart as much as they were unhappy together, strive to find an in-between and hopeful space.

It should be noted that Victoria Clark, partnering with Joe Keenan, has tinkered with some elements of the original script, doing some snipping and even eliminating at least one number. Anyone going to see Love Life expecting an unadulterated reproduction of the 1948 original may be disappointed in this, but for the rest of us, it is a delightful gift. Now if only we can get someone to finance a recording to sit alongside that of the Opera North version!