three pennies’ worth of sketch comedy-cum-musical

i saw “the threepenny opera” on saturday night. although there was a crew of moronic goth-punks posing one row up, the audience was not bad. to be fair, i’ve never seen the threepenny opera and am not familiar with the story at all. this was my first exposure to the play. of all the cast, i was most excited to see alan cumming, whose work in cabaret i enjoyed.

the staging was postmodern minimalist. an led prompter sat at the top of the viewing area, displaying the song that was too commence. meanwhile, each setting in the script had its own neon sign that would be displayed in the background. the neon signage, on occasion, was the only scenery. this was a spartan staging indeed.

in the desire for glam-punk minimalism, however, it seems that the entire story was expurgated. there was no way to understand who any of the characters were nor their relationships to each other. i am to understand that there is a rivalry between peachum (played wonderfully by jim dale) and macheath – better know as mack the knife – played with cumming’s scottish brogue. most of the rest of the cast played their characters with their native accents. this, in and of itself, is not bad. cyndi lauper’s pirate jenny seemed to work with a brooklyn drawl. ana gasteyer, herself an immense talent for getting laughs with the driest of deliveries, brought mrs peachum to some semblance of comic life.
the strong casting and solid performances, though, could not provide the literal clarity that was needed once the story had been removed. it was not until after the show that i learned that peachum is the king of the beggars, which, in retrospect, explained his opening scene where he chastises a beggar for working without a license. there is a mention in passing that mack is the king of the thieves, but there is no connection that he and peachum are vying for control of london’s criminal underground. instead, i was left wondering why peachum was so upset that his daughter polly had been hitched to mack. what was left was a pastiche of musical numbers amounting to little more than a series of skits.

of the skits that worked, mr dale had the lion’s share. one early moment in particular encapsulates the problem with the show. peachum explained to the amateur – and unlicensed – beggar the five types of begging. after listing two, the scene ends. obviously, the delivery does not meet the expectations from the set-up. likewise, as this is an opera, i expected a story. instead, there was merely a highlights reel. perhaps “vignettes from the threepenny opera” would have been a better title.