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Post by ando on Jan 9, 2023 4:30:03 GMT
  The Threepenny Opera (2016, National Theater Live)
The famous Kurt Weill/Bertold Brecht musical which premiered in a 1928 Berlin got a contemporary London update by Rufus Norris and the National Theater in 2016. The Guardian review.
I just watched the 1931 Pabst film version which is, indeed, quite different from the stage play. But each has their charms.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Jan 11, 2023 13:37:31 GMT
Wow! Thanks for the link. I've only watched the beginning so far but plan on watching every second.
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Post by Swithin on Jan 21, 2023 5:08:19 GMT
I love The Threepenny Opera and have seen many productions, including the National Theatre's, which I did not like very much. (I first became acquainted with the show listening to the great Theatre de Lys production, which played Off Broadway in the 1950s, arranged by Blitzstein.) I also saw a New York production with Sting, Ethyl Eichelberger, and Georgia Brown many years ago, which was pretty good. But the best production I've seen by far was an updated production presented at London's Donmar Warehouse in 1994. Tom Hollander played Macheath. Here he is singing "Easy Life," followed by the earthiest version of the "Barbara Song" that I've ever heard," followed by "The Flick-Knife Song." The updated lyrics are amazing. In this production, Macheath seems both vile and wildly attractive, which is as it should be. I never got that before (or since). |
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Post by Lucky Dan on Feb 22, 2023 9:29:47 GMT
I love The Threepenny Opera and have seen many productions ... I also saw a New York production with Sting, Ethyl Eichelberger, and Georgia Brown many years ago, which was pretty good. I just read Frank Rich's archived NYT review of that production and he was less kind. (And kind of a bore.) He also mentioned Sting's rendering of "Mack the Knife" on the tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, which I just had posted in the Jukebox thread. He mentioned it only in passing while beating up on Sting to call it "monotonous" (he has a point) though it wasn't Sting's number in the production.
It's interesting that you believe Macheath should be an attractive man. I can't disagree. There is something particularly sinister in mixing the winsome with the wicked.
I just read about the real-life 18th century thief on whom he is (secondarily) based, Jack Sheppard, and though was a small man, which enabled his frequent escapes from custody but prolonged the agony of his death by hanging, he was quite popular. His lynching was attended by thousands and his autobiography, copies of which were sold to the crowd at his execution, is said to have been ghost written by Dafoe. Unlike Macheath he was not a murderer, which might account for his popularity among the masses from whom he did not steal.
Thank you for posting this. I'm looking forward to seeing it in it's entirety. I've only heard audio recordings before.
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Post by Swithin on Feb 23, 2023 14:36:03 GMT
I love The Threepenny Opera and have seen many productions ... I also saw a New York production with Sting, Ethyl Eichelberger, and Georgia Brown many years ago, which was pretty good. I just read Frank Rich's archived NYT review of that production and he was less kind. (And kind of a bore.) He also mentioned Sting's rendering of "Mack the Knife" on the tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, which I just had posted in the Jukebox thread. He mentioned it only in passing while beating up on Sting to call it "monotonous" (he has a point) though it wasn't Sting's number in the production.
It's interesting that you believe Macheath should be an attractive man. I can't disagree. There is something particularly sinister in mixing the winsome with the wicked.
I just read about the real-life 18th century thief on whom he is (secondarily) based, Jack Sheppard, and though was a small man, which enabled his frequent escapes from custody but prolonged the agony of his death by hanging, he was quite popular. His lynching was attended by thousands and his autobiography, copies of which were sold to the crowd at his execution, is said to have been ghost written by Dafoe. Unlike Macheath he was not a murderer, which might account for his popularity among the masses from whom he did not steal.
Thank you for posting this. I'm looking forward to seeing it in its entirety. I've only heard audio recordings before.
The recording I listened to obsessively in my teen years was the Blitzstein adaptation which ran off-Broadway (Theatre de Lys, now the Lucille Lortel) for years in the 1950s-early 1960s. Although it had to be a bit tamer, because of the times, Beatrice Arthur's "Barbara Song" and the other songs on that album are enjoyable. Lenya was in the production and won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress. (Although the production played Off-Broadway, it was eligible for Tony nominations; possibly the only Off-Broadway production in history so eligible.)
Tiger Brown (Lucy's father) is Chief of Police. In the Donmar production, which was the best I've seen, he's infatuated with Macheath, which is why he lets Macheath get away with so much.
Beatrice Arthur singing the "Barbara Song" in the Theatre de Lys production
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Post by Lucky Dan on Feb 28, 2023 6:48:10 GMT
I just read Frank Rich's archived NYT review of that production and he was less kind. (And kind of a bore.) He also mentioned Sting's rendering of "Mack the Knife" on the tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill ...
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Post by Swithin on Mar 1, 2023 2:30:13 GMT
Bobby Darin had a big hit with "Mack the Knife," which won the Grammy Record of the Year award.
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