"Stranger Here Myself," which she created with the director Christopher Alden, evolved out of a concert program of Weill songs that she presented outside of New York.

The theatricality is enhanced by Francine Lancaster, singing the Weill songs in the pit (there is one song by another composer, Friedrich Hollander).

The Weill songs, drawn from the composer's American period, included selections from "Lost in the Stars" and "One Touch of Venus."

"What struck me about him was the power of his songs," said the singer, who recorded "This Is New," a CD of Weill songs, for Verve, last year.

(601-1100) * Joy Bogen, a pupil of Lotte Lenya, sings Weill songs, some of them unpublished.

As it turns out, Sting himself had long talked about his interest in Weill and had recorded several Weill songs.

A book, the author says, for the people who have been whistling Weill songs for years and want to know more about their composer.

Mr. Cerveris sang a Weill song in a light, German-accented voice.

As for the Weill songs, in a hall holding only a few hundred, "September Song" and "Speak Low" spoke as well as sang.

Neither a concert nor a play, the narrative is a fusion of about 20 Weill songs from 1928 ("Threepenny Opera") through 1947 ("Street Scene," with words by Langston Hughes).