Skip to Content
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • flickr
  • WAGNER.EDU
  • A-Z
    A
    • Academic and Cultural Enrichment
    • Admissions
    • Alumni & Friends
    • Anthropology Department
    • Arts Administration
    • Athletics
    B
    • Biological Sciences Department
    • Bookstore
    • Business, Nicolais School
    • Business Office
    C
    • Calendar
    • Campus Life
    • Campus Services
    • Center for Academic & Career Engagement
    • Center for Intercultural Advancement
    • Center for Leadership & Community Engagement
    • Center for Spirituality
    • Children & Teens Programs
    • Commencement
    • Communications & Marketing
    • Conference Services
    • Continuing Education
    D
    • Dance Program
    • Dining Services
    E
    • Early Childhood Center
    • Economics Department
    • Education Department
    • English Department
    • Expanding Your Horizons
    F
    • Faculty Research Sites
    • Film & Media Studies
    • Film & Photo Shoots
    • Financial Aid
    G
    • Gender Studies
    • Government & Politics Department
    • Give to Wagner
    H
    • HawkTalk Blog
    • Health & Wellness
    • History Department
    • Holocaust Center
    • Honors Program
    • Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform
    • Human Resources
    I
    • Information Technology
    • Institutional Advancement
    L
    • Library
    • Lifelong Learning Department
    M
    • Math & Computer Science
    • Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures
    • Music Department
    N
    • Newsroom
    • New Students Hub
    • Nursing, Evelyn L. Spiro School
    P
    • Performing Arts
    • Philosophy & Religious Studies Department
    • Physical Sciences Department
    • Physician Assistant
    • Pre-Health Science Program
    • Pre-Law Program
    • President’s Office
    • Provost’s Office
    • Psychology Department
    • Public Safety
    R
    • Registrar
    • Residential Education
    S
    • Sociology Department
    • Student Engagement and Activities
    • Student Government Association
    • Study Abroad
    T
    • Theatre
    • Theatre Season
    • Title IX
    V
    • Veteran’s Resources
    • Visual Arts Department
    W
    • Wagner Fund
    • Wagner Magazine
    • WCBG Student Radio
    • Writing Center
  • QuickLinks
    ONLINE
    • Directory
    • Follett Discover Access
    • Mailport
    • Make a Gift
    • Moodle
    • myWagner
    • Wagner Works
    ON CAMPUS
    • Events Calendar
    • Job Opportunities
    • Library
    • Registrar’s Office
    • Theatre Season
    • Visit Us
    • Webcam
    MORE RESOURCES
    • For Employees
    • For Faculty
    • For Current Students
    • For New Students
    • For Community
    • For Alumni
    • For Parents
Wagner College Newsroom
  • Events
  • Stories
  • Contact
  • Newsroom MENU
    • WAGNER.EDU
    Advance reviews ‘Threepenny Opera’; runs thru March 8
    February 22, 2009 Share
    Share on Facebook
    Facebook
    Tweet about this on Twitter
    Twitter
    Share on LinkedIn
    Linkedin
    Pin on Pinterest
    Pinterest
    Email this to someone
    email
    Text Size

        Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “Threepenny Opera,” directed by Drew Scott Harris, opened on Wednesday, Feb. 25 for a two-week run in the Main Stage theater at Wagner College.
        From Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 25-28 and March 4-7, the curtain will go up at 8 p.m., with matinees playing at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28 and Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8. Ticket prices are:
    Wednesday and Thursday evenings, general admission $23, seniors & students $22, children $16
    Friday and Saturday evenings, $27, $25, $18
    Matinees $26, $24, $17
    Student rush is available one hour before showtime at the box office. For tickets, call the box office at 718-390-3259 or e-mail boxoffice@wagner.edu.
        In addition, playwright Rebecca Joy Fletcher will present a free “lecture in song” on Sunday, March 8 at 12:30 p.m. before the final matinee performance of “The Threepenny Opera.” Fletcher’s lecture, “Rebels & Visionaries: Jewish Cabaret Artists Between the Wars,” will be given in Spiro Hall, Room 4.
        For everything you wanted to know about “The Threepenny Opera” — and more — visit the Web site maintained by the Kurt Weill Foundation at www.threepennyopera.org.
     

    Thursday March 5, 2009
    REVIEW:
    ‘THE THREEPENNY OPERA’ AT
    STATEN ISLAND’S WAGNER COLLEGE

    by LISA ANN WILLIAMSON
        STATEN ISLAND, NY -- There is just no getting away from the darkness that is “Threepenny Opera” but along the way there’s enough humor to make the journey worth taking.
        This is not one of those shows that leaves you skipping from the theater in merriment. Rather, you take pause and reflect.
        Wagner College’s production of “Threepenny Opera” honors the Bertolt Brecht libretto with music by Kurt Weill, loaded with political commentary that suggests society has not progressed much in the last 80 years.
        In this Brechtian society where the caste system of beggars (who should not be seen, especially during large public parties like a coronation) looks down upon the ordinary folks that are “only fit to be begged from” while others have found a way to profit from poverty.
        Mack the Knife is a notorious criminal with a weakness for the ladies. He has connections in the police department that keep him safe from capture. That is, until he marries Polly, the daughter of Mr. Peachum, organizer of beggars. The Peachums set out to have Mack arrested and put to death. Mack could evade capture were it not for his weakness.
        Director Drew Scott Harris led the cast through a very ambitious production of this 20th century work, making statements about society that are crucially relevant today. Harris’ production sits solidly in the 1980s and gives costume designer, Alan Michael Smith and makeup and hair designer, Nicole Libby great leeway in creating funky and colorful duds and ‘dos. Scenic designer Phillip Hickok provides loads of levels for action. Harris helps that action flow from the stage to the house and back effortlessly.
        Murderers and thieves carry laptops and play Mario Brothers videos in their spare time.
        The show is filled with a multitude of emjoyable moments. Even before the show begins, House Manager (Michael Hickie) chides audience members for not turning off cell phones and advises them to do so.
        Show standouts include Brianna Horne, as Jenny, who delivers some of the shows most compelling and interesting moments. When she’s on stage, somehow the lights seems brighter because of her presence. Horne has a voice with a range of colors that adds monumentally to the eeriness of songs like “Pirate Jenny” and enhances the “Tango Ballad.”
        The on-stage chemistry between Jenny and MacHeath, aka Mack the Knife (Matt Ban) is unmistakable.
        Mr. J.J. Peachum (Brett Figel), who organizes and profits directly from the beggars, is at his best when engaging the audience to either read aloud or highlight a point he’s made.
        Tiger Brown (Michael Pesoli) is hilarious as the police commissioner who harbors love in his heart for Mack since the two served in the army together. The duet between Polly Peachum (Laraine Watson) and Lucy Brown (Danielle Roth) is engaging and passionate.
        After the show, even as the audience feels a bit of the haze of London’s Soho district, the trip is well worth it.
     

    Thursday February 26, 2009
    STATEN ISLAND'S ACCLAIMED THEATER TROUPE
    TACKLES 'THE THREEPENNY OPERA'
    by Lisa Ann Williamson
        For the uninitiated, the latest Wagner College production is not the usual fare of musical theater. The main characters are thieves, beggars, whores and murderers. There’s no fluff factor, no transporting of the audience to a happy place.
        “The Threepenny Opera” is real and raw and funny.
        “It’s a typical musical comedy of the 1950s — but all the sugar has been taken out. It plays more like ‘The Sopranos’ than ‘Annie Get Your Gun,’” said Drew Scott Harris, who’s directing the show for the “No. 2 Theatre Program” in America according to The Princeton Review.
        The piece — part satire/part Marxist critique of capitalism/part visionary musical theater — was written by German poet Bertolt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill. It was first staged in 1928 in Weimar Germany. Through the love story of Polly Peachum and “Mack the Knife” Macheath, the play satirizes the bourgeoisie of the Weimar Republic, revealing a society at the height of decadence and on the verge of chaos.
        “Threepenny Opera” opened on Broadway in 1933, but closed after just 12 performances. It wasn’t until its 1954 off-Broadway opening at the Theatre de Lys (now the Lucille Lortel Theatre) in Greenwich Village, with a new English script adapted by Marc Blitzstein, that the show really made a hit in the New York theater.
        The Theatre de Lys production won three 1956 Tonys and helped make stars of Bea Arthur, Jerry Orbach, Ed Asner, Estelle Parsons and Jerry Stiller. One of the first successful attempts to inject jazz into theater, “Threepenny” is also the musical that gave us the hit song, “Mack the Knife,” recorded by Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sting and a slew of others.
        “It’s didactic and has a moral, like in ancient Greece,” said Harris, a Broadway director who has a three-decade history directing shows at Wagner. “This is heavy, message-oriented stuff where every criminal is a member of the bourgeoisie.”
        The show is also full of the Brecht brand of humor that borders on wacky with a lot of gunplay. Audiences will also “be talked to” as the fourth wall is continuously broken. Some songs are chilling and dark.
        Brecht redefined musical theater with works like “Mother Courage” and “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” among others, Harris said.
        “The theater is not about illusion, it’s about fixing reality,” he added. “Theater has to take on a therapeutic role. Our theater is recuperative.”
        This is Wagner College’s first staging of “The Threepenny Opera.” In the 1973-74 season, the nationally acclaimed company staged John Gay’s 1728 musical “The Beggar’s Opera,” the play Brecht used as his primary inspiration for “Threepenny.” “The Beggar’s Opera,” very popular in its day, satirized Italian opera with its use of familiar tunes and ordinary people as characters.

      • Uncategorized

    Popular Stories

     

    Related Stories

    main hall building imageHidden Image December 7, 2020 Wagner College’s 2020 Faculty Awards Congratulations to the winners of the 2019-20 Faculty Exceptional Performance Awards from Wagner College. Under normal circumstances, these awards would have been presented at the annual Faculty Awards
    Verrazzano Bridge1aHidden Image November 19, 2020 Wagnerians rank high on Staten Island Power 100 Annual listing of politically important people by City & State N.Y. magazine includes six leaders from the Wagner community, including President Martin
    main hall building imageHidden Image November 12, 2020 Pat Pappalardo ’70, R.I.P.
    main hall building imageHidden Image October 26, 2020 WCT stages two Moliere one-acts, Oct. 30 – Nov. 1 Wagner College Theatre’ s ‘The Jealous Husband’ and ‘The Flying Doctor’ on outdoor stage; one performance to be streamed online
    main hall building imageHidden Image October 16, 2020 WSJ: Broad Institute coronavirus testing How a pioneering Covid testing lab helped keep northeast colleges open Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard processes 45,000 Covid-19 tests a day for more than 100 colleges by MELISSA KORN Twice a week,
    main hall building imageHidden Image July 29, 2020 Boston Globe article At MGH, a new painting depicts medical workers standing strong By DITI KOHLI, Globe Correspondent In the early months of the pandemic, one Massachusetts General Hospital surgeon sent artist Antonio Reonegro
    main hall building imageHidden Image July 1, 2020 How to be a ‘virtual volunteer’ Bernadette Ludwig When the coronavirus hit New York, Bernadette Ludwig, a sociology professor at Wagner College, was looking for ways to volunteer from home. For her, the solution was New York Cares,
    main hall building imageHidden Image May 14, 2020 2020 grads’ breakdown: Where they come from, what they studied Wagner College awarded 423 bachelor’s degrees during the 2019-20 academic year. Thirteen of them went to international students. Of the 410 bachelor's degrees earned by U.S. residents: 250 went
    DAN SCULLIN new1Hidden Image April 30, 2020 Theater grad becomes COVID nurse Daniel Genovese-Scullin ’07 follows godfather Stephen Siller’s example of service
     
    • Wagner Magazine

      Stories from alumni around the world.

      Read the magazine

    • Contact the newsroom

      Media relations director Lee Manchester
      lee.manchester@wagner.edu
      718-420-4504

    • Wagner in the media

      Wagner College 2019 news coverage

      Browse Catalog

    • Visit Campus
    • Explore Majors
    • Library
    • Make a Gift
    Wagner College
    Work One Campus Road
    Staten Island, NY 10301
    • CONTACT US
    • Privacy Policy
    Back top