WISH-LIST WEDNESDAY(ish): The Threepenny Opera

PREMIERED: 1928 (Berlin)

MUSIC: Kurt Weill

BOOK/LYRICS: Bertolt Brecht

Artwork from the 1976 broadway revival

We're going way back this week, to feature a classic, and a foreign language piece that is soon to be celebrating its centenary. Originally premiering in German back in 1928, "The Threepenny Opera" is a play with music by Kurt Weill, and original German language book & lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. It is often considered a halfway house between a play and a musical, but more often than not is marketed as a musical to avoid genre-related vagueness. Though its initial introduction to the UK was an unequivocal disaster, with the composer Weill labelling it as "the worst performance imaginable", and stating that "the whole thing was completely misunderstood". In spite of this catastrophic first foray into British theatre, the play has gone on to become one of the most revived pieces of theatre of all time.

The play was adapted from an 18th century English ballad opera entitled "The Beggars Opera" by John Gay, and tells the story of notorious criminal "Mack the Knife" in Victorian London, and his secret marriage to Penny, the daughter of the Beggar King Peachum. It is often considered a biting satire of morality, politics and capitalism, and shows how the rich often escape justice, while the poor are often made to suffer as a consequence. It may be almost a century old, but its core themes of corporate corruption and social inequality still hold weight today.

Photo from the 2016 National Theatre production

Previous casts have been spearheaded by the likes of Christopher Reeve, Tim Curry, Alan Cumming, Sting and Rory Kinnear among others, with the likes of Chita Rivera, Gypsy Rose Lee, Barbara Windsor, Bebe Neuwirth and Rosalie Craig also also having featured, and with five revivals on broadway alone, it is one of the most prolific shows to perform in New York City. Additionally it has had no shortage of stagings in the UK, with its first London staging taking place in 1956, with a further four professional productions since, including two at the National Theatre. With the most recent of these having been around 10 years ago, there's every chance another revival could be not too far away...