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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > February > 22 > Entry
Review: “The Threepenny Opera”
A product of the harsh economic and social restrictions of Germany’s Weimar Republic, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” began as agit-prop but went on to become a masterpiece of musical theater.
Arguably the first popular show to challenge the saccharine conventions of traditional light operattas — and pave the way for seriously-themed future musicals — “The Threepenny Opera” also emerged as a powerful critique of repressive society and government.
Brecht’s sardonic, biting text — based the famous “Beggar’s Opera by John Gay, from 1728 — paints an early Victorian society of con men, thieves and prostitutes — blood-thirsty capitalists run amok — in which there are no morals and the powerful, not the common man, always wins.
Weill’s brittle harmonies and jazz-infused melodies simultaneously mocked the lighter theatrical musical fare of the time and also catapulted genre to a more musically complex level.
Unfortunately, there is no darkness to the current production of “The Threepenny Opera” by the University of Texas’ theater department playing now through Sunday at the Brockett Theatre.
Directed by third-year MFA student Halena Kays, this “Threepenny” ends up feeling inappropriately light, a romp rather than the sardonic and hard-edge satire of the original material.
Though costumed lushly in period garb (Proletina Veltchev designed the costumes), this production missed the play’s grittiness. Mack the Knife (Kyle Schnack) and his band of thieves, along with the bevy of prostitutes, come off as slapstick, not menacing. And Kays overplays what should be the play’s purposely-stilted theatrics, sending the action at times to overhanging perches or to the far side of the stage’s wings — and subsequently putting the action out of the sight-lines of some audience seating.
A measure of redemption to the misguided direction and theatrical tone comes from the show’s music, directed by associate professor Lyn Koenning who leads a crack ensemble on stage. Likewise Liz Kimball as Polly Peachum, Christopher Reese as Mr. Peachum and Jennifer Adams as Mrs. Peachum had the vocal finesse to make the best of Weill’s urgent yet haunting melodies. Ditto with Amanda Morish as Jenny.
Still, the high spots of singing talent couldn’t make up for a mismanaged and ultimately mistuned production.
‘The Threepenny Opera’ continues 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Brockett Theatre, Winship Building, UT campus. $15-$20. www.texasperformingarts.org
Comments
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By Kehaulani
February 27, 2011 5:29 PM | Link to this
Just to riff on the review - the production showed little regard for the historical performance style of the Brecht/Weill stage. The cast’s reading totally sanitised the crudeness and ugliness of the original delivery. The exaggerated RRrrrs in the German and other speech mannerisms were totally ignored and they are vital to the musical’s atmosphere. Lest anyone think the problem was with the English language, just listen to how Ute Lemper handles the English, and that argument vanishes. And why do the singers stay in that Broadway/Disney tones quality that makes the female leads sound more like Pocahontas? Like the singers, the band didn’t come close to playing idiomatically. Original recordings of the music exist. All it takes is to listen and absorb. Furthermore, the night I was there, the band did not play with any commitment to the music. Some of the cast gave good performances and in general, it was a pleasant evening’s performance. But much less a tale of the seedy side of, say, the Weimar Germany or Dickens’ England, than was a tale of Kurt Weill meets Mary Poppins.