With this week’s anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, combined with the recession and the recent spat of Orange County financial crimes which take advantage of vulnerable and needy victims, this 1928 German musical remains Poignant and relevant. The Threepenny Opera, with book and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and a “finger-snapping score – which ranges from lyrical arias and tangos to stirring anthems and bawdy ballads” by Kurt Weill, opens tonight at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at University of California, Irvine.

“The jazz masterpiece, based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, is a saga about late Victorian London that was the forerunner of the delectable decadence seen later in Cabaret, Chicago, Sweeny Todd, and countless other brash and brassy spinoffs”, explained Keith Fowler, Ph.D., drama professor and the production’s director.

The show had its original premiere in Berlin in 1928 and has been translated, revived on stage, produced as movies, and been on and off Broadway ever since. The Threepenny Opera may have been written a hundred years ago, but the characters’ struggles with joblessness, homelessness, love and revenge are themes that are just as timely in today’s cultural environment, according to Fowler.

In today’s “cultural environment”, it is not difficult to find parallels to Victorian London. OC180NEWS occasionally has reported on particularly despicable Orange County crimes where the criminals have taken advantage of vulnerable or needy victims. Consider, for example, our recent articles about a caregiver who stole money from the 92 year old person she was supposed to be caring for, the person who stole donations from the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, or the woman who stole money from her church (see links below).

But, all is not doom and gloom in The Threepenny Opera. Dr. Fowler told us “I first saw the show in Berlin in December 1960. It was being revived in its original theater (the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm) and directed by its original 1928 director, Erich Engel. It was produced by Brecht's own theater, the Berliner Ensemble, as a tribute to his memory. I was surprised at how light-hearted that production was. American productions tend to be dark and heavy-handed, but the "original" was more like a light French boulevard comedy. In our latest UCI version, we are aiming at both the comedy and some obvious darker touches.”

Dr. Fowler also shared with us a backstage note on the current production. “This is the third time for the show by UCI's School of the Arts. I think one interesting note is that the actress who played Mrs. Peachum for us in 1980, Donna Soto-Morettini, went on to become Head of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. And when Donna came back to California this summer/fall (doing research), I talked her into coaching our current actors. So our original 1980 Mrs. Peachum coached our 2009 actors.” (see photo)

Dr. Fowler also was good enough to send us his program notes on the show. They follow.

Dreigroschenfieber

Bertolt Brecht, now a household name (in the homes of theater fans at least, and drama students, yes?), owes his popular fame to The Threepenny Opera. We recognize Brecht as perhaps the major playwright and theatrical theorist of the 20th century. But his renown would not be nearly as wide without the stunning public success of Threepenny Opera.

Die Dreigroschenoper premiered in Berlin in 1928, and it was an instant sensation—a runaway hit that epitomized the Nazi-reviled “decadent” art of the Weimar Republic. Decadence apparently loves company, for it quickly swept Europe with productions ranging from Rome to Moscow and from Paris to Prague. Dreigroschenfieber (“Threepenny Fever”) was a true jazz age phenomenon. Only London (loyally sticking with John Gay’s original Beggars’ Opera) resisted the Continental excitement. Eventually London capitulated, following America in its fever for Marc Blitzstein’s award-winning 1954 adaptation.

At UC Irvine, Threepenny is our most enduring musical, a fact attested to by the number of times it has been revived. This is our third presentation of the show, surpassing (by one revival) our runners up—West Side Story and ¬Sweeney Todd. Our first Threepenny, directed by Robert Cohen, was in 1980.

Why such popularity for an eighty year old musical? A standard answer is that Threepenny is the one musical preferred by both musical and non-musical theater-lovers. Threepenny is notoriously “smart and sophisticated.” For anyone tired of old time operettas or happy tales of cheerful optimism, the reputed “Marxism” of the Brecht/Weill collaboration lends everything a political edginess. In addition to Kurt Weill’s enduring jazz score, we have Brecht’s notorious rebelliousness.

So how Marxist is Threepenny? Its subversive notion that political corruption unites Macheath (Banditry) with Tiger Brown (the Law) certainly supports a critique of capitalism—as do the play’s focus on the under-classes and the recurring theme that survival requires deception and the vicious exploitation of others. But the truth is that Brecht was never entirely satisfied with Threepenny. He attempted to strengthen his Marxist sentiments in G.W. Pabst’s 1931 film version, and he revised the story completely in his 1934 Threepenny Novel as a satiric critique of Capitalism and middle class venality. But from the very beginning, and over the decades, the primary audiences for Threepenny have been decidedly bourgeois. Are not political cynicism, wry acceptance of personal vice, and an appreciation of cutthroat competition, the true marks of modern sophistication?

Dreigroschenfieber defined a generation as sophisticates—and it still does.

-- Keith Fowler, Director

The interdisciplinary production features performers from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dance, Drama and Music departments. A limited number of tickets are still available for the evening and matinee shows which are scheduled through Nov. 21 at the Claire Trevor Theatre on the UCI campus. Tickets are $28 general admission; $25 seniors and groups; and $12 UCI students and children, and can be purchased through Ticketmaster.com or the UCI Arts Box Office, (949) 824-2787. Viewer discretion is advised due to adult theme and content.