Okay, show of hands, please. How many of us know nothing about "Threepenny Opera" except Bobby Darin singing "Mack The Knife"? (You count if you didn't know the song came from that show but remember it anyway.)
The opening number from New Line Theatre's production of the show will make even diehard Darin fans - like me - find a whole new feeling in that song. Descended from John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera", a show with its own interesting blood lines, the play talks about amorality and corruption through society's levels. It doesn't harangue, it just shows the results in words, action and music. Taking place in the days before Queen Victoria's coronation in 1838 with a properly dicey group of characters, it feels much like a precursor to "Sweeney Todd" in appearance and attitude.
A fine cast all around, headed up by Todd Schaeffer as Mackheath, far more subtle than a Snidely Whiplash-like character could be played. His nemesis, Mr. Peachum, is Zachary Allen Farmer, motivated not by fatherly love but by belief that his daughter, Polly (Cherlynn Alvarez), has no business marrying "Captain" Mackheath and taking herself off the market. But are they really married? The family Peachum is completed with the missus, Sarah Porter, and a fine group they are, interacting with all the fervor of escapees from Dr. Phil's show. Porter gets extra credit as the costume designer, whose work excels here. Mackheath's henchmen, Brian Claussen, Kent Coffel and Todd Micali, have plenty of fun and sound great; ditto the women at Mackheath's favored house of ... well, ill repute seems sort of redundant, given these characters overall. But you already get that. The women are Margeau Baue Steinau and Kimi Short, who work with Jenny Diver, Mackheath's longtime paramour, played by Nikki Glenn.
A 7-piece house band handles the score with elan, although I will admit to being surprised at how abruptly most of the songs end. That's not how I generally think of Kurt Weill's music, but perhaps I just haven't heard enough of it to judge. Scott Miller's done a good job directing it, and given his love for Steven Sondheim, perhaps the "Sweeney Todd" inference isn't accidental. A worthwhile evening.
Threepenny Opera
through June 20, 2015
New Line Theatre
Washington University South Campus Theatre (old CBC building)
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