ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, USA

Directed by Shaun Patrick Tubbs
Conducted by Scott Schoonover

Merging influences from Broadway, gospel, spirituals, jazz, and blues, Kurt Weill’s final work for the stage is a gripping musical tragedy based on Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country.  

Set in apartheid South Africa, Lost in the Stars tells the story of Absalom, the son of Stephen Kumalo, a local black preacher. When Absalom kills his white neighbor in a desperate bid to provide for his wife and child, he is arrested and sentenced to death. Before his son is executed, the murdered man’s father, James Jarvis, comes to the preacher to offer compassion and understand rather than hatred and retaliation. 

Lost in the Stars soars with thrilling operatic passages as it lays bare the tragedy of social barriers among all people, ending with a moving promise of reconciliation and hope for the future.