The Timeless Songs of Kurt Weill--One Night Only

“I don’t want to be nostalgic,” said German chanteuse Ute Lemper, whose concert show “Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill,” comes to the Henry Fonda Theatre Tuesday (for one night only).

Not that she’s in a position to be personally nostalgic about the composer. He died in 1950: she’s only 25. What she means is Weill’s songs fit the temper of the ‘80s just as they did that of the ‘20s. Look at the new Broadway revival of “Threepenny Opera” with Sting.

“Weill’s songs aren’t fixed in a different time; you can transplant and transpose them,” said Lemper. You can also sing them in different languages--she sings them in German, French and English. You can sing the familiar ones and the ones that nobody remembers.

“If music has quality, it should be able to be put in a different epoch. People must be tolerant to that--open their ears and listen to what’s happening in the world.”

HOME AGAIN: When it comes to “Nightclub Cantata,” Bill Castellino believes you can go home again.

Castellino staged Elizabeth Swados’ musical at the Odyssey Theatre in 1980. This weekend he’s reviving his production, with three members of the original cast and a new design scheme.

“It’s 21 poems, all set to music,” explained Castellino. “All deal with the theme of survival on some level, and the focus is on language--be it English, ancient language or made-up words.” Contributors include Delmore Schwartz, Sylvia Plath and Pablo Neruda, plus a Robert Frost poem added for this production.

But why do it again? “What I find really interesting is to deal with the subject of survival in 1989. After the Reagan years, the homeless situation, economic and environmental problems--survival has a whole different meaning. And the theatrics of ‘Nightclub Cantata’ are as original now as they were then.”

IN THE SHADE IN THE SUN: “I haven’t done musicals lately, but I always wanted to do this one,” said Michael McGuire, who stars as the Rainmaker in San Bernardino Civic Light Opera’s revival of “110 in the Shade.”

McGuire, who won a Tony for his work in “Les Miserables,” came out to California six months ago for the TV-pilot season and says that he would certainly go back to Broadway for the right show--but not until then. “The things you used to tolerate in New York--the crime, the filth--I now find unbearable.”

The former Wall Street broker is also not missing his 1987-88 soap opera stint on “The Doctors.” “It was so stupid. Fortunately, I was able to leave after a few months.”

THEATER BUZZ: Actor Paul Linke, last heard paying tribute to his late wife Francesca in “Time Flies When You’re Alive,” is about to plunge into marital waters once again. In his newest solo outing, “Further Conversations/Life After Time,” the actor describes how he proposed to the new woman in his life, Berit Hokanson. (As of yet, no wedding date has been set.)

Linke’s work is part of the Mark Taper Forum’s Lab ’89 New Work Festival, which is presenting free, open-to-the-public workshops and play-readings through Dec. 20 at Taper, Too. The lineup includes Robert Schenkkan’s “The Kentucky Cycle,” Ron Hutchinson’s “Dead Man Out,” George C. Wolfe’s “Mr. Jelly Lord,” John Steppling’s “My Crummy Job,” Philip Kan Gotanda’s “Fish Head Soup,” Jeremy Lawrence’s “Uncommon Ground,” Thomas George Carter’s “Jack Ruby is My Idol” and Murray Mednick’s “Heads.” Reservations: (213) 972-7373.

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: Brian Friel’s “The Faith Healer,” at the Odyssey, stars John Horn, Judy Geeson and Neil Hunt as a dubious faith healer, his wife and manager.

Said Dan Sullivan in The Times: “The listener has to decide what really happened. It’s also left to him to imagine what these three people were like when they were a team touring the village halls.”

Noted Gayle Carol Slade in Drama-Logue: “Emotionally each performer is right on target--never too much nor too little . . . While it is not exactly a religious experience, it’s a bit of confession for the three characters and an intriguing theater experience for the audience.”

From Jay Reiner in the Hollywood Reporter: “A risky play to mount, not so much for its subject matter as for its seemingly static form and slippery theme. Actually, theme and form are perfectly suited to one another. This is a ‘Rashomon’-type play in which truth wears many faces, or masks.”