Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
#0Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 9:25amWhat you say is the appropriate age for this show? Roundabout's website and Broadway.com don't have it.
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Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#1re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 9:45am
18? I respectfully disagree. Teens need to see a wide range of art, even art that's improperly done, and even a wildly distorted THREE PENNY still has Brecht and Weill there for substance. I took my 15 year old son. I also took him to ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE and RABBIT HOLE. He wasn't damaged. (He's actually heard the eff curse before. In far less artful material, and circumstances.)
My soapbox stance:
I think assuming that teens can be kept under a rock until 18 is encourages incuriosity. They don't wake up at 18, after a steady diet of tacky, lurid PG-13 "teen fare" and suddenly want to see the better material. You have to take them by the hand and lead them to a bit of everything, even -- gasp -- material that might shake them up in the moment. The theater, which has a level of artifice movies do not, operates under a different suspension of disbelief anyway. Open up the world to them, and help them think, analyze, and grow. They'll learn what they personally appreciate, what they don't. And crtical thinking cannot be acquired overnight; it is a long distance journey.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 4/29/06 at 09:45 AM
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#2re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 9:55amSorry, I had this debate at another website.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#3re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 10:03am
If a child was very mature I'd say 15 or 16.
If not, 18 or older.
ihearttheatre
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/12/05
#4re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 10:13amIt really depends on the maturity of the child and his/her level of interest. I'm 15 and I loved it.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#5re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 10:18am
iheart, I'd love to hear what you think of my soapbox position. I find myself defending my son's theatergoing all of the time. Parents are oddly inconsistent -- you might say hypocritical. We live in a bizarre world -- letting our kids go online and see/read anything 24/7. And watch TV, constant assault of shallowness. And see crap PG-13 (and R, leet's face it) movies. But then go -- eek! They curse in this play! Or simulate sex! Put on the brakes!
If you have thoughts on teens seeing more demanding -- adult at times -- theater, please share.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#6re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 10:31amI am 16 going on 17 and loved it. However, I would say that at the least, noone younger than 16 should go. It is a great piece of work but has alot of adult themes that are just not appropriate for a younger audience.
"The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility. Oh brother, that got me, that did me in!"
#7re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 10:42amI think you have to assess your child, and based on his her her maturity level decide to take her to a show.
#8re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 10:44amthey show full penis and swear a lot. if it were a movie it would be rated R. perhaps you can cover your child's ears and eyes at the bad parts.
ihearttheatre
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/12/05
#10re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 11:04amI think 13 is fine and if you say at the box office the ticket is for a child under 18 its half price.
#11re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/29/06 at 9:47pmThanks for the advice. I asked this because I'm 15 turning 16 in May and I may go to NY in June. I was considering seeing this show.
My avatar = A screencap from Avatar, arguably the greatest animated show of all
rickydrummer
Stand-by Joined: 5/10/04
#12re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 12:11am
Seriously, penises are perfectly natural objects. Half of the population has them. In all seriousness, I don't think there should be much worry over this production. Certainly don't take anyone who hasn't yet had "the talk" or who you feel absolutely can't handle works like "f***" or "c**t."
Updated On: 4/30/06 at 12:11 AM
#13re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 12:54amMy brother is 9 and loved it. Yes, much of it went over his head, but the political significance of the pieve was not entirely lost on him, and he especially loved the music. To put things in prespective, we are New Yorkers and avid theatre goers, and he is a mature 9 year old. I'm 14 and loved it even more than he did. I think it's hard to pick an appropriate age for this because it is so subjective.
"We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in it's flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung, the dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future too."
- Tom Stoppard, Shipwreck
#14re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 12:56am
I'm sure high school age would be generally appropriate...obviously each parent's comfort level with these sort of things, but high school age is pretty safe.
I mean, if you haven't heard your share of bad words by then or know anything about sex by the time you're 14, you're living in a hole.
-Anyone want to turn anarchist with me?"Bless you and all who know you, oh wise and penguined one." ~YouWantItWhen????
#15re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 1:06am
I have nothing against encouraging children to see theater. And I think Threepenny IS appropriate for mature teenagers.
But no matter how mature, I think it's wrong to take a 9 year old to see this show. What's the point? They won't understand the subject matter, or the politics, or the themes, so why take them to it?
Let kids be kids, for Pete's sake. Wy expose them to adult themes when they're too young to handle them? It's one thing to talk about a 13 year old seeing the show (which I admit, I think is a little young as well). But a 9 year old? There HAS to be a line drawn. Kids can be mature and enjoy GOOD theater without exposing them to a show like this production of "Threepenny Opera".
Updated On: 4/30/06 at 01:06 AM
#16re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 3:27am
I'm 16 and really liked it a lot, although I prefer the original Brecht lyrics 
Corine2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/14/03
#18re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:03am
It really needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis. As I'm sure we're all aware, some children are more mature than others, and can enjoy and understand "adult" theatre (or movies, TV shows, books...etc). I took my two nephews (a very mature 13 and 15) to see THREEPENNY and they both loved it.
You need to take a look at the child in question and see if it is right for them, because every child is different.
WiiCKED x3
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/18/06
#19re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:00am
im 13 and i got tickets to see it with my cousin who's 16. i think we're seeing it friday or saturday.
she's really mature, because she could handle alot, because she's basically an adult. I guess i'm mature, i could handle alot of adult themes also.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#20re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:36pm
Anyone who thinks teens should be withheld from challenging art until 18 should spend some real time with teens who inhabit the real planet we live on.
If they haven't been exposted to more challenging material, they will not awaken at 18 with their curisoity and interest intact. Curiosity must be encouraged, material with ideas beyond one's world must be presented -- teens must be guided along the way. We don't evolve overnight and then find ourselves "ready" for adult fare. Take your teens, and dare to talk about it, before, after. And days later. They'll feel respected, and more mature if you treat them accordingly. Holding the world back from teens under 18 only make them insular.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#21re: Appropriate Age for Threepenny?
Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:39pm
I'm 16 and I loved it..and I mean LOVED it...it was slightly uncomfortable with the raunchiness - but it's life - it was AMAZING. It really gave me a new perspective on things.
I loved it. Never ever ever got bored.
And the other thing about the Phantom Lady was, Bert, she realized, in the city that never sleeps...
What did she realize, Kitten?
That all the songs she'd listened to, all the love songs, that they were only songs.
What's wrong with that?
Nothing, if you don't believe in them. But she did, you see. She believed in enchanted evenings, and she believed that a small cloud passed overhead and cried down on a flower bed, and she even believed there was breakfast to be had...
Where?
On Pluto. The mysterious, icy wastes of Pluto.
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