For the Broadway production, Green and Weill made the protagonist an American soldier during the First World War, and reportedly chose the name "Johnny Johnson" because that name appeared on American casualty lists more than any other. Johnny begins the play having sculpted a peace monument that is no sooner dedicated than the announcement comes that the United States has entered the war. Johnny becomes a soldier, and misadventures ensue, leading him to eventually be sent to a mental hospital.
For the score, Weill noticeably recycled a melody he had previously used in Happy End. Overall, the music is recognizably his, even when he isn't rehashing earlier material. A typical number is "Song of the Guns" in which the chorus chants: "Soldiers! Soldiers! / Sleep softly now beneath the sky / Soldiers! Soldiers! / Tomorrow under earth you lie."
Johnny Johnson is not as well known as Weill's earlier work he wrote in Germany, such as The Threepenny Opera, nor was it as successful as his later work for Broadway, such as Knickerbocker Holiday. Still, it's worth a listen.
