THEATER REVIEW: THE THREEPENNY OPERA

Mack the Knife is back in town!

By Ed Rampell

How many pop fans know that Bobby Darin’s Ballad of Mack the Knife, which was a huge 1959 hit towards the end of the Blacklist/McCarthyism era, was actually co-written by a Marxist? Now, playwright and lyricist Bertolt Brecht’s play The Threepenny Opera, with music by Kurt Weill and starring Jeff Griggs as Macheath, is, like Mack the Knife himself, back in town, at the International City Theatre.

So strap on those shoes and rush down to Long Beach to see the most polished production this reviewer has had the good fortune to enjoy since August, when I enjoyed four plays on Broadway.

Okay, okay, so I’m prejudiced – Brecht is my favorite 20th century bard. But this superb musical, directed by veteran director Jules Aaron (including stints at Joe Papp’s renowned Public Theater in Manhattan) with musical direction by Darryl Archibald, plus a stellar cast to – uh – be knifed for is Broadway caliber. The mise-en-scene (which includes the theatrical equivalent of a freeze frame), dancing, singing and above all, Brecht’s biting dialogue and lyrics, are not to be missed. I’ll try to keep the plot spoilers down to a roar for the unfortunate few who have never seen Brecht’s most popular musical (which ran for 2611 performances Off-Broadway in the 1950s, and which – despite its name – has lots of spoken dialogue, as well as singing).

The lecherous, murderous Macheath, aka Mackey and Mack the Knife, heads a ring of criminals, while the cunning conman Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum (Tom Shelton) is the chief of a sort of syndicate of panhandlers. When Mack “weds” his daughter the virgin/whore Polly Peachum (Shannon Warne) at a Bunuelian beggars’ banquet, all hell breaks loose.

The tale, which Brecht adapted 200 years after John Gay wrote 1728’s The Beggar’s Opera, takes place in 19th century London (not Long Beach), as the coronation of the queen looms in the background. As Mack, the muscular Griggs (who went from soap opera to The Threepenny Opera, having played the tube’s devilish Jude St. Clair in the Days of Our Lives) is mesmerizing, an incorrigible, androgynous ladies man, whose dark eye shadow suggests that uber-droogie – Alex (Malcolm McDowell) in A Clockwork Orange.

One can tell that Warne has a classically trained voice, as Polly sings Pirate Jenny and, with another of Mackey’s mistresses, Lucy (Rachel Genevieve, who has a musical theater background), they perform the witty "Jealousy Duet." Mr. and Mrs. Peachum (Eileen T’Kaye) also have a droll number about wayward children, Why-Can’t-They-Song; for all I know, Brecht and Weill inspired Paul Lynde’s delightfully daffy "What’s the Matter With Kids Today" song in Bye Bye Birdie.

Another standout is Paul Zegler, who displays his Second City chops with great comic panache as the corrupt police chief, Tiger Brown. Zegler’s agility belies his girth, with much mirth. Julie Carillo has (like two other male actors) gender bender roles as Ed, one of Mackey’s gang, and as Vixen, a bordello denizen.
Richard Strauss composed the tone poem "Thus Spake Zarathustra" (the monolith music in 2001: A Space Odyssey), but had Strauss lived to see this production’s show stopping rendition of the prostitute Jenny Diver, he may have written another piece called: "Thus Sang Zarah Mahler."

Scantily clad in her scarlet lingerie, the rather aptly musically named Mahler is a scene stealer – not only because of her bawdy sexuality, which shines in the tango number Jenny performs with her ex, Macheath, in "Pimp’s Ballad," but due to Mahler’s vocal virtuosity in "Solomon Song" (and what a Bathsheba she makes!). The smoldering Mahler makes the most of Weill’s raucous music, which combines German cabaret sounds with all that jazz. Weill’s wife, Lotte Lenya, originally played Jenny onstage and onscreen, in G.W. Pabst’s 1931 film adaptation, and Mahler is a most worthy successor to her.

Kudos to the cast, the lovely theatre space, the refurbished lobby – but bravo Brecht, who is the biggest star of this production, his take no prisoners pen dipped in acid, scathingly raking capitalism over the coals back. I’ve always thought that Mack the Knife personified unbridled, unrestrained, unregulated every-man-for-himself capitalism.

Brecht first wrote The Threepenny Opera back in 1928, but its anti-bourgeois sensibility is more timely than ever. As our boy Mackey faces the gallows, the playwright conjures up some gallows humor and takes some jabs at Greek drama, spoofing the Deus ex machina ending of many ancient plays with an out of the blue act of the gods.

I have only one quibble: with the ensemble’s faux British accents, it’s somewhat difficult to follow the lyrics sometimes. The supertitles used at operas per se could solve this problem (but then again, like Brecht, I’m an expert at redistributing other people’s money). But this is minor – it’s certainly easy enough to get the gist of every scene. And this is the only musical I’ve ever seen in Los Angeles that I think should release a cast album. Along with theater lovers, Hollywood talent agents should head for the 710 Freeway to sign Jeff Griggs, Zarah Mahler and the other talents who bring alive what NewsWeek once called “the greatest musical of all time.”

The first production of International City Theatre’s new season is a lollapalooza, full of risqué humor, tough as nails social commentary and glorious music. ICT’s The Threepenny Opera is, to use a Brechtian term, a play of epic proportions. Viva Brecht!

The Threepenny Opera plays Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 pm until March 22 at International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802. For more info: (562)436-4610; www.ictlongbeach.org.