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The Threepenny Opera Shocks and Delights at the National Theatre

Jun. 01, 2016

<em>The Threepenny Opera</em> Shocks and Delights at the National Theatre

The National Theatre’s new production of The Threepenny Opera opened May 26, and the critics widely agree – it’s great fun and the score still dazzles. Described as “enjoyably raucous and packed with amusing detail” (Henry Hitchings, The Evening Standard), Threepenny is “blessed with one of the great scores of modern musical theatre….” (Mark Shenton, The Stage).

Of the new adaptation, Alice Saville of The Independent writes, “Simon Stephens’s lean adaptation scrubs the text clean of superfluous speeches or muddied plots, without erasing Brecht’s grubby thumbprints.” The Guardian’s Michael Billington calls it “a production that finally suggests it is Weill’s score that really keeps the piece alive today” and Claire Allfree of The Telegraph writes, “[T]he production soars.”

The score, under music director David Shrubsole, “is given a jagged, full-blooded treatment by [the] onstage band” (Shenton). Director Rufus Norris “has assembled a superb cast” (Hitchings), including Rory Kinnear as Macheath, Nick Holder as J.J. Peachum, Rosalie Craig as Polly Peachum, and Haydn Gwynne as Mrs. Peachum.

This new production proves the play’s ongoing relevance and opens up the work to a whole new generation of theatre-goers.

Details on the production can be found at nationaltheatre.org.

For more information on Kurt Weill, visit kwf.org. 

Kurt Weill
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
play with music after John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera"; in three acts
German translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann
adaptation and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht
2S, 2Mz, T, Bar, B-Bar and speaking roles
asax(fl, cl, bsax).tsax(ssax, bsn, bcl)-tpt.tbn(db)-banjo(vc, gtr, Hawaiian gtr, mandolin, bandoneon)-timp/perc (tpt 2)-harm (cel, pno)
full evening

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