Date: Fri 21-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLK

Illustration: C

Location: A14

Quick Words:

Threepenny-theatre-MacHeath

Full Text:

(rev "The Threepenny Opera" @WestConn, 3/21/97)

Theatre Review-

Three Cheers For WestConn's "Opera"

By Julie Stern

DANBURY - Last year, WestConn's theatre arts department put on a most

ambitious production of Tony Kushner's A Bright Light Called Day , which

examined the impact of Nazi Germany on a small group of artistic bohemians.

The link to German cultural history is continued with this year's spring

musical, The Three Penny Opera , which is the most famous joint creation of

Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill, political exiles whose works were banned by the

Nazi regime.

Originally written in 1928, Brecht's bitterly satirical portrait of Victorian

English lowlifes has been produced many times in this country, in a number of

translations, with a variety of performers in the leading role, ranging from

Jerry Orbach to Sting. As soon as they hear its opening notes, most people

recognize the haunting ballad of "Mack the Knife" - Oh the shark has, pretty

teeth dear/ And he keeps them, pearly white/ Just a jackknife, has MacHeath,

dear/ But he keeps it, out of sight...

But while the recurrent melody runs through memory easily enough, not everyone

attends to its message of murder, betrayal and amoral cruelty. MacHeath is a

classic anti hero - a thief, a pimp and a killer who has achieved fame and

fortune in the underworld through a combination of ruthless indifference to

others, and judicious bribery of the police commissioner.

Featuring nearly two dozen songs set to Weill's stridently compelling score,

the show is "an opera, conceived with all the grandeur that a beggar can

imagine at a price so low a beggar can afford it," as the ballad singer tells

the audience.

The narrator and cicerone - a Mr J.J. Peachum - along with his wife, runs a

store for beggars. In exchange for a percentage of the take, they provide

props and costumes that will make a beggar look pitiful enough to melt the

hearts of respectable Londoners.

The action begins when Peachum's daughter Polly elopes with MacHeath. Her

parents are furious, and not because MacHeath is a criminal or because he

already has a string of other women including all the inmates of a brothel in

Wapping, but because they had been counting on Polly to support them in their

old age.

By way of revenge the Peachums set out to get MacHeath hanged by bribing the

whores to betray him to the police. The ensuing story mixes pledges of love

and friendship with lies and backstabbing treachery, told through wonderful

songs and some comic routines, as in MacHeath and Polly's "marriage," catered

and decorated by Mack's gang of housebreakers.

Like many intellectuals of his time, Brecht was a Communist, and his point in

this play was that crime is the product of poverty and an unjust society in

which the wealthy and powerful capitalist class exploits the hapless poor.

Given that arrangement, he observes, why should we expect the bottom of the

social order to be any less greedy and selfish than their "betters"?

This is the message of songs with acerbic refrains such as "What keeps a man

alive? He lives on others..." or "The bulging pocket makes the easy life..."

("and even saintly folks will act like sinners, unless they've had their

customary dinners").

This show is an opera, rather than a musical comedy, of the type Western

normally stages in the spring. It is the songs (music and lyrics) that are

truly memorable, along with the pageantry and set pieces that feature Helen

Masterson's spectacular costuming.

What it does not have is dancing, and since choreography is generally one of

the most exciting parts of Western's productions, there are times between

musical numbers when the show feels a bit static. The principals have fine

voices but the spoken dialogue could use a bit more force.

As far as the leads go, it is Andy Honings, as Peachum, who ties it all

together with a dominating performance that gets Brecht's satirical point

across with elegant cynicism, overshadowing Mike Hartel as the irrepressible

Mack.

All three of Mack's women - Jessica Murphy as Jenny, Sara Constantinople as

Polly, and Cheri Lloyd as the police commissioner's daughter, Lucy - give

strong performances, and their songs - less Marxist in theme than plaintive

laments about the fallibility of romance - are truly memorable, especially the

"Pirate Jenny" fantasy of revenge by "the ship, the black freighter, with a

skull on its masthead" that sails into port one day and wipes out every man

who ever insulted her.

Three cheers to WestConn for taking on this challenge and for giving area

residents the chance to see this remarkably unique show.

WestConn's latest reason for applause, The Three Penny Opera continues at the

Berkshire Theatre until March 22. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday

at 8 pm. Tickets are $15 each, $12 for students, seniors and children; call

837-8732.