Threepenny Opera Reviews

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.
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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

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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.

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.

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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.

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

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

And Edie Falco was supposed to play Jenny?

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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