Smith remembers Lenya well. The younger actors listened wide-eyed to Lenya's tales from the show's original production in Germany in 1928. She told them that Nazi brownshirts had tried to drown out the voices of the actors. After the show finally closed in New York, he moved west permanently, thanks to a romance with a girlfriend who purportedly had Hollywood connections. Selling each other out is what the play is about.
Money controls everything.
Look at 'Survivor. Look also, he said, at the Rampart Division police scandal and the homeless who still camp out on the streets of L.A., prototypes of which are reflected in the play. Smith harbors no illusions that his own production will take off and run for six years.