Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m paying tribute to Alan Jay Lerner, who was born on August 31, 1918. In celebration, I want to spotlight one of my favorite shows that boasts his brilliant lyrics — it’s Love Life (1948), on which he collaborated not with Frederick Loewe (his most famous partner), but rather with the one-of-a-kind Kurt Weill.

Love Life was among the first musicals I featured here on Musical Theatre Mondays, where I also sampled a few audios. But that was so long ago, and now I want to re-offer the entirety of my live Love Life collection — with subscribers who comment below to alert me of their private, non-commercial interest. This includes audios of the 1987 University of Michigan production, the 1990 American Musical Theatre Festival production in Philadelphia, the 1991 Lost Musicals! production, and the 1995 Opera North production that was later broadcast on BBC. Here’s an excerpt: the Opera North cast with the smart “Economics.”

And as another sample of this glorious score (which needs an official, fully-orchestrated cast recording) — here’s the University of Michigan cast with “Here I’ll Stay.” Enjoy!

Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more sitcom fun!