'Threepenny Opera' makes most of grunge factor

Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
sfgate.com

It looks punk and The Threepenny Opera sounds kind of punk at first as well. But it doesn't take long for the jazzy lyricism of Kurt Weill's music and scathing irony of Bertolt Brecht's lyrics to lift the Shotgun Players' production above the limits of directorial concept.

A half-decent Threepenny is a gift at any time, and Susannah Martin's staging of the 1928 Brecht-Weill masterpiece is better than that. It starts slow but it picks up once Jeff Wood's Macheath arrives bearing his latest bride, Kelsey Venter's Polly Peachum as an image of sweet virginity. And it soars on the voices of Venter, Beth Wilmurt, Bekka Fink and Rebecca Pingree.

The cast is uneven, longer on punk and Cabaret attitudes than acting in some roles, and not all are strong singers. Music Director David Möschler's seven-piece band sounded thin at times Sunday but makes good use of its limitations and help from the cast to capture the gist and flavor of Weill's unforgettable score.

Threepenny thrives on grunge anyway. Brecht's loose adaptation (with Elisabeth Hauptmann) of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was conceived to be performed by untrained voices - though his lyrics demand clarity and Weill's melodies embrace virtuosity.

Nina Ball's set is the savaged, wastepaper-covered interior of a once grand bank. Martin makes it work equally well for every aspect of Brecht's cross-section of capitalism - the beggars corporation run by the ruthless Mr. and Mrs. Peachum (Dave Garrett and Fink), the hideout of Mac's cutthroat gang, the whorehouse where Jenny (Wilmurt) works and the police station run by the corrupt Tiger Brown (Danny Wolohan).

Möschler and Daniel Duque-Estrada oversell the opening "Moritat" ("Mac the Knife"), but it gets a suitably chilling reprise from Wilmurt later in the three acts. Wilmurt shines as well on the sardonic "Socrates Song" and in a brilliant "Pimp's Tango" duet with Wood, sizzling with eroticism in Erika Chong Shuch's choreography.

Wood is a fierce presence in strong deliveries of "What Keeps a Man Alive?" and Mac's other great paeans to dog-eat-dog economics, though he's not quite up to the arias of desperation when he's about to be executed. Translators Jeremy Sams (lyrics) and Robert MacDonald (book) capture the in-your-face verve and audacity of the original.

But the real discovery here is Venter, who unveils new levels of sweetness ("Polly's Song"), depths of toughness and reservoirs of vocal dexterity with each song. Her "Pirate Jenny" is remarkable, her cat-fight duet with Pingree is awesome and her "Barbara Song" - like much of this Threepenny - is not to be missed.

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