"The Threepenny Opera" by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht is a pioneering work of the musical comedy genre and one of those oft-produced shows that, despite its existence in several varying translations from the original German, has become a standard of the American theater. Sometimes when a show is such a steady presence on the New York scene (it has seen seven Broadway mountings since it premiered in 1933), we view each new production with a nostalgia that can temper the work’s impact.
Artistic Director Lenny Leibowitz has made sure that this production will not be viewed through that lens of nostalgia, but with a fresh and nuanced gaze. It is not simply a remounting of a treasured piece from the canon: it is a living, breathing-at times, exciting-theatrical experience.
The sprawling plot line begins with Peachum, an entrepreneur in Victorian London whose business is to demand a tax from all the street beggars in town, finding out that his daughter has spent the night with Macheath, a dastardly criminal known colloquially as Mack the Knife. We have previously been introduced to Macheath during the prologue by one of the beggars, the delightful (and delightfully pants-less) Stephen Sheffer singing the show’s most famous song, "Mack the Knife," which chronicles Macheath’s history of murder, larceny, rape, and general heartlessness.
In the second scene, the pathetic wedding of Macheath and Polly Peachum, we finally meet our antihero. Cruel and thoughtless he may be, but there’s no question why Polly would fall for such a bad boy: as played by Matt Faucher, Macheath is also strong, sexy, and charismatic. Emma Ronsenthal’s Polly is no shrinking violet in the shadow of Macheath’s muscle. She brings a fearless, devil-may-care quality to the naïve Polly, and her renditions of "Pirate Jenny" and "Barbara Song" are feats of musicality and acting, respectively. Her name could be above the title.
Other stand-out performers include Joy Franz, deftly navigating a rather pronounced vocal break as the sneering, conniving Mrs. Peachum; Chad Jennings, who brings character-actor competence and leading-man charm to corrupt cop Tiger Brown, and the wonderful Ariela Morgenstern, whose bribe-taking prostitute Jenny Diver looks like a jaded, unbowed Natalie Wood.
As it is the benchmark of Brecht’s Epic Theatre movement, "The Threepenny Opera" should, in production, continually remind the audience that they are viewing a play. Rather than be caught up in the action and transported to an alternate reality a la Stanislavski, we are aware of the artifice.
To act as aides memoires, the ensemble of beggars and whores introduce each scene and song with a hand-painted sign suggestive of those carried by Peachum’s beggars. They draw a patch-worked set of red satin curtains, every swing of which evokes the billowing scarlet from Macheath’s bloody past.
Brecht’s London is a town populated by beggars, thieves, and whores. Corruption is the standard. It’s kill or be killed in this Marxist send-up of Capitalism gone haywire. Macheath gets double-crossed by just about everyone he knows but still doesn’t have the good sense to get out of town. He uses his every opportunity for escape instead as a time to go and have sex with prostitutes. This is what happens when lust for hedonism precludes the anticipation of its consequences.
Brecht did not want to be preachy and pious in this cautionary tale, but in the end (somehow) Macheath gets what’s coming to him. The show may be close to a hundred years old, but I’m still not going to tell you the ending. Go see it.
"The Threepenny Opera" plays in repertory through February 28 at TGB Theater located at 312 W. 36th St, just west of 8th Ave. for more information, visit www.marvellrep.com
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