MOVIES - March 16, 1987

Bette Midler will portray Lotte Lenya in a musical drama of the flamboyant recording, stage and film star’s life. The movie will be based on “Lenya,” a biography by Donald Spoto due this fall. and from archival material provided by the Kurt Weill Foundation, dedicated to Lenya’s composer husband. Midler will have access to unpublished documents and more than 400 personal letters. Tri-Star Pictures and Storyline Productions signed the deal with Midler prior to her exclusive contract with Walt Disney Productions. Lenya dominated the Berlin stage in the 1920s, ‘30s and early ‘40s. In this country, Lenya appeared in a long Broadway run of “Cabaret,” and at age 73, starred in “Mother Courage” by the late Bertolt Brecht.