Interesting Threepenny Article

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:19am

Flotilla and Edie are in this? Fascinating...........

""The most intimidating thing I've ever done," is how director Scott Elliott describes his upcoming revival of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht musical The Threepenny Opera.

The new Roundabout Theatre Company staging features a commissioned translation and adaptation by the director's frequent collaborator, playwright-actor Wallace Shawn.

Leaving the scribe to do his job at first, Elliott told Playbill.com he then workshopped the newer take on the classic "Mack the Knife" tale. He has since endured the "long process" of "honing" the work with Shawn. "[With] this particular translation, because it's Wallace Shawn and he speaks German, he was able to go right to the [original text by] Brecht." Previous versions have utilized an intermediary who spoke German, he explained. "So he was able to really read it and Wally has similar political beliefs as Brecht and he was able to take that stuff and make it very modern."

Elliott was reluctant, however, to explain his concept. "It's definitely a modern interpretation is what I'll tell you. I don't want to give it away because I can't, I'm still working on it. It hopefully will feel modern and people will go away really understanding it and not find it elusive." Offering a clue to his new staging, he continues, "What has been elusive in all the other translations is the story. But in this one, you will follow the story, you will understand what the Peachums are going through, what Mack and Polly are going through, what Mack's other lover is going through and how he ends up being almost hanged at the end."

What the director and most theatre folk are talking about is the diverse ensemble that makes up the cast of The Threepenny Opera. "It's such an untraditional play, what would be the traditional way to do it?" posed the show's Macheath, Tony Award winner Alan Cumming. "What's best about it is the people assembled to do it are also non-traditional, from all different backgrounds. And not just pop stars, the ensemble is performance artists and drag queens, people from very, very disparate ways and I think that's what makes it so exciting."

Among the stage veterans like Cumming, Christopher Innvar and Tony Award winner Jim Dale are singers Cyndi Lauper and Nellie McKay making their Broadway debuts, "Saturday Night Live" comic-cum-stage star Ana Gasteyer (Wicked, Rocky Horrow Show), drag divas Flotilla DeBarge and Edie as well as former personal trainer-turned-actor Carlos Leon (Aunt Dan and Lemon)."

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/98451.html

[OasisBroadway]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:29am

And Carlos Leon. . .Madonna's Baby's Daddy. . .wow they realy have quite a unique cast.

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:30am

Is Brian Charles Rooney the real name of one of the drag queens? If not, is he going to be playing Lucy as a man or a woman?

Considering Bea Arthur played the part...

[children&art]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:48am

Lucy in this production is played by a man as a man.

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:50am

That should make Jealousy Duet quite interesting.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:55am

The director says: "Previous versions have utilized an intermediary who spoke German, he explained." That's not very accurate. I believe that Marc Blitzstein, whose version of THREEPENNY OPERA ran forever, studied in Germany and saw the original production in German; Ralph Mannheim, who did with John Willett the 1970s translation used in the Lincoln Center production for Raul Julia, is one of the great German translators and editor of the complete Brecht series for Methuen. I don't know if Eric Bentley, whose translation was published by Grove Press, is fluent in German, but I would guess so: he worked with Brecht in the 1940s and he certainly has a lot of English versions of Brecht plays in print.

[october]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:15pm

Edie no longer is in 3PO. Cyndi Lauper is now playing the part of Jenny. Edie had to fulfill her commitment to the Sopranos.
Should be interesting to see Ms Lauper in this role.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:18pm

They're referring to the drag queen Edie -- not Edie Falco.

[october]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:27pm

oooops.....sorry about that....so many words to read....so little time~

[new_philosophy_girl]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:29pm

I cannot wait for this show to open. It has all the makings of a potential smash.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:43pm

Is it pessimistic of me to gather from Elliot's reluctance to discuss his concept that perhaps he doesn't really have one?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 10:45pm

Bingo, MB!

Though it should still be fun, regardless.

Updated On: 3/14/06 at 10:45 PM

[toomeytwopiece]

Posted: 3/14/06 at 11:31pm

There are 3 drag queens in the show, the two mentioned: FLotilla Debarge & Edie, as well as drag legend Hattie Hatthaway.

As for the role of Lucy, it's being played by Brian Charles Rooney, who is not a drag queen, but has a HUGE vocal range. He always sings high, and rather meaty tenor, but in this he is singing soprano. The songs for Lucy were lowered for Bea Arthur in the U.S. 1950's version of the show.