Threepenny Opera Reviews

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 3:51pm

Financial Times (UK) is early again and gives it Two out of Five Stars:

"Jim Dale, recognisable to millions for his voicing of Harry Potter audiobooks, adds a very un-Brechtian aspect to the current revival of The Threepenny Opera: redemption. As Mr Peachum, beggar king and father to Macheath’s young bride Polly, Dale injects a rather anaemic evening with desperately needed life. In his second-act solo, “The Song of Inadequacy of Human Striving”, he uses his body with an elasticity Pilates instructors half his age might envy, all while retaining the cynicism towards respectability that makes this 1928 Brecht- Weill collaboration as biting as ever.

Only one other moment in this Roundabout Theatre production matches Dale for excitement: when Cyndi Lauper, as prostitute Jenny, sings “Solomon Song”. Centre-stage, and attired in a fluff-collared ensemble that is a welcome break from Isaac Mizrahi’s other, more S&M-meets-post-punk costumes, Lauper brings her character’s hollowed-out determination into focus.
_______________________________________________________________

Mac, played rather well by Alan Cumming, presides over a coked-up underworld, where bisexuality is evident and pornography is an unremarked part of the decor. Nellie McKay plays his bride, Polly, promisingly in the first act, wanly later.

If there is nothing shocking about the production’s overall concept, chosen by the director Scott Elliott, there is nothing especially illuminating either. The new translation, by Wallace Shawn, may startle those familiar with the recording featuring Marc Blitzstein’s too-sanitised lyrics, but Shawn’s plethora of four- letter words ultimately does not cut deep."

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/0ba0b684-d08f-11da-b160-0000779e2340.html

[dirty rotten guy]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 3:56pm

I met one of Alan Cumming's good friends yesterday in the cancellation line for Grey Gardens. He said that Alan thinks that the critics are going to give negative reviews to Threepenny. Personally, though, I think it is going to be widely raved. I guess we will have to wait till tommorow to see.

[Just_John]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 3:59pm

I saw it Tuesday and I loved everything about it except the majority of the music. But every other aspect(book, lighting, direction, choreography) fit the show perfectly.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:00pm

You didn't like the music!?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:01pm

I think they are going to be all over the map, with a lot of very negative reviews and some fairly positive ones. The production is simply too controversial with too many bold choices to get a lot of raves.

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:03pm

Umm - the Music is a somewhat big part of Threepenny OPERA!

It has, like Opera, in like, the Title!!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:06pm

I saw it Tuesday and I loved everything about it except the majority of the music. But every other aspect(book, lighting, direction, choreography) fit the show perfectly.

So the music just didn't "fit"? Well, perhaps it is the other aspects that are not right, then.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:06pm

I think Cyndi will be straight across the board raves.

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:10pm

I am more interested in these reviews than any other this season.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:12pm

Same, lead.

Actually, I would have been interested in BA reviews if I knew there were positive reviews to look foward to. But that's another thread and more anger.
Updated On: 4/20/06 at 04:12 PM

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:14pm

If I were a bettin' man ......

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:20pm

Well, the show actually isn't an "opera" (the title is a takeoff of John Gay's "Beggar's Opera" from the 18th century -- which also wasn't an opera, but instead consisted of the folk music of the period) or even a work of "musical theatre" as we've come to understand the term today. It's more a play with music or a "songspiel" which uses songs to fill out and comment on the satire and social commentary in the play. It's about two-thirds play and one third music and the music is much more important lyrically than melodically to it's creators -- though Weill's melodies are classics.

Updated On: 4/20/06 at 04:20 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:22pm

And Edie Falco was supposed to play Jenny?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:24pm

Yep. I love Falco, but thank goodness that her Sopranos schedule conflicted. Lauper is absolutely brilliant.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:25pm

I wonder if they wanted Cyndi...but they thought she might be in Sweeney?

Cyndi just seems too perfect to have been a replacement. But weirder things have happened.
Updated On: 4/20/06 at 04:25 PM

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:25pm

I am glad that Lauper is in this. But I would have loved to finally hear Falco sing on broadway. She has a gorgeous singing voice.

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:26pm

While it's not an opera "opera", I would consider "Pirate Jenny" as "operatic" in both scope and tone.

There's a huge vocal leap that's repeated in that over and over again.

and "Solomon's Song" ain't a picnic either.

There's other songs in it that have vocal challanges as well.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:28pm

And Lucy's Aria....

[Color and Light]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:29pm

I'm so very curious to see Threepenny reviews - particularly in regards to what they have to say about Cyndi Lauper, whose performance was one of my favorite things about the show. She was fantastic, not to mention unafraid to call out someone for not turning off their cellphone when I was there, which got her another point from me.

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:29pm

Note the term "aria".

I always believed the composers said one thing and wrote another.

[dirty rotten guy]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:30pm

I thought Edie was supposed to play Mrs.Peachum...

Updated On: 4/20/06 at 04:30 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:30pm

drg - check all the news reports that say Edie dropped out from playing JENNY.

Color and Light - did you see the show on April Fool's Day?

"I always believed the composers said one thing and wrote another." - Well, it IS Brecht...::share in pretentious chuckle:: Updated On: 4/20/06 at 04:30 PM

[Just_John]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:31pm

It's not at all an opera, and I'm not saying any of the music was terrible. Alot of it just wasn't my kind of music. I thought the opening was amzing, but the rest of the first act went downhill. During intermission i thought it was terrible But Act 2 was so much better in every way that when I left the theater I loved it.
Updated On: 4/20/06 at 04:31 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:33pm

Oh no one said it's not challenging. There's tons of non-operatic music that's incredibly difficult so sing -- Sondheim, Bernstein and yes, Weill. Being able to deliver a first rate "Pirate Jenny" is as hard as singing anything else. But, it just doesn't fit into the narrow parameters of what would be described as operatic singing.

[dirty rotten guy]

Posted: 4/20/06 at 4:33pm

whoops, my bad. I must have gotten her mixed up because I am sure that someone else originally read for Mrs. Peachum, I just can't remember who now.