The Threepenny Opera - NT (Filthy Language/Immoral Behavior)

The new website is a big mistake

Damn. They obviously really need that £350k.

Doesn't RK have operatic training?

Oooh, excited to catch this on Thursday night!

I knew Rory has a great voice since I heard him pulling off Puccini rather impressively in Burnt by the Sun at NT. He blows a trumpet since 5 so I think his lungs are certainly trained

For the ones who've already been - is it a modern dress production?

So, busy, busy, busy. Never a dull moment in this production of 3PO, at least that's the intention. People don't just enter, they race on and then race around the ever revolving paper and plywood set, then race off again. Paper and plywood? Yes, well, Brecht was the inventor of meta theatre, after all, and Rufus Norris acknowledges that and then some. Characters don't use doors, they tear holes in the walls. Murder victims bleed red paper entrails pulled from pockets. Beggars are all dressed in the same uniforms, like inmates from an asylum. Macheath's gang wear prison stripes.  The police are Keystone Kops. For some reason, Macheath and Polly make their initial entrance from above (like Glinda!) dry humping on a crescent moon. It's all pretend, folks, it's theatre!

And to be sure, the longeurs that can sometimes affect 3PO productions due to Brecht's didacticism are not present here, which is an achievement. But, and how can I put this, it all seems a tad overblown. 3PO is, at heart, a little show presented here in a space that's way too big for it. And something of that heart gets lost.

And there's the music. Kurt Weill's songs are the reason the show lives on, still captivating and influencing people (Cabaret and Urinetown are its direct descendants) all these decades later. And it's not particularly well served here.

First, are these the original keys? If so someone should have transposed everything down because it's all way too high for this cast. Even the amazing Rosalie Craig (star of the show) who sings like an angel sounds like she's at the top of her range. Haydn Gwynne, who we know has a beautiful voice, sings mainly in an uncomfortable head voice and sounds hooty and strange. Nick Holder, a natural tenor, does well with Peachum's songs but it's a bit of a struggle for Rory Kinnear who sings, perhaps, better than expected but not as well as the part requires. He flattens a couple of his lungeing high notes. And Sharon Small as the iconic Jenny Diver is a disaster. She has three of the score's greatest songs - Surabaya Johnny, Tango and The Solomon Song - and she destroys each of them in turn.

Part of the problem may be that the songs are not just sung, they're "staged" in such a way as to keep that momentum going, undercutting the listening experience, preventing us from hearing and absorbing the lyrics which contain the essence of the show.

Simon Stephens' adaptation, it must be said, remains quite faithful to the 1928 original production, eschewing some of the song switches made in later productions. So Polly Peachum gets all her songs restored to her and this is a bonus, not only because it's Rosalie Craig singing them but because they contribute to the reinvention of Polly as a character. She's no longer the golden haired ingénue of tradition but a somewhat frumpy - she wears glasses and a baggy cardigan and keeps her red hair coiled up - and down to earth young woman of some depth and capacity. In the context of this production the character really works. In fact she dominates her scenes in a way which, to me, alas, Macheath does not.

Rory Kinnear is a fine actor but he feels several sizes too small for this part. His Macheath is a petty criminal who slithers in and out of the shadows but is in no way bigger than life. He plays it like a minor functionary in a larger scheme, not a man known and feared by all of London's east end. He's supposed to be a lowlife Casanova but where's the charm, the seductiveness?. Even his big knife seems more like a toy than a weapon.

So it's a mixed bag for me. A bit too much of a good thing in Norris's staging, a couple of casting mistakes, and, sadly, an underpowered rendering of a great score. But... I can't say I didn't enjoy myself. I did and so did most of the people around me.  This may well be a hit for the NT. I just think it could have been so much better.

Eventually got a seat for the June 28th matinee thanks to the tremendous help from the box office staff especially Matthew. I had reported earlier on this thread that I was having a real problem reserving a ticket online and after many attempts had all but given up. The only alternative seemed to be to phone the box office which as I live in Spain would have added additional expense to the enticing 15 pound ticket price. Not only that but I learned that phone bookings also had a booking fee of 2 pounds 50. Not expecting to receive a reply I sent the box office an email explaining my predicament. To my surprise the aforementioned Matthew sent me a reply saying that a seat had been reserved and that the 2 pound 50 reservation fee would be waived and not only that but that they would phone me to confirm the booking. My faith in the human race and theatre box offices restored, I am now looking forward to seeing this at the end of next month. I haven't see a production of it since 1972 when I caught Vanessa Redgrave, Annie Ross and Barbara Windsor at the Prince of Wales. Unfortunately after so many years my memory of that production is rather dim but I do remember the F word being used but it looks like the current production has a lot more to offer given the self description of filthy language and immoral behaviour.

Recently I have listened a lot to Donmar recording. It sounds a lot better quality to what I heard the other night at the NT

The Beggars' Opera and The Threepenny Opera have always been set in London, haven't they?

The Kurt Weill Estate have always been meticulous in not allowing transpositions of songs. Even though Mrs Weill (Lotte Lenya) used to sing Polly’s songs down an octave in later years. We have to wait 70 years after the death of Brecht before we can do what we like with the music.

SURABAYA JOHNNY?? Are you sure this song is in 3PO at the NT? It’s from Happy End.

Is “lunging” a typo? I don’t understand …