Threepenny Opera at the Odyssey Theatre Los Angeles

Threepenny Opera at the Odyssey
A Review

By Kelly Monaghan

Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, with music by Kurt Weill, is a mordant morality play of petty criminals, scabrous beggars, corrupt cops, and whores with hearts of tin. It was written during the heyday of Germany’s Weimar Republic, a time when greed ran rampant and a corrupt administration enriched its cronies while neglecting the basic needs of its poorest citizens. Sound familiar?

It turns out that now is a very good time indeed to reprise Brecht’s scathing indictment of man’s inhumanity to man. In a new production at Los Angeles’ Odyssey Theater, an audience member is dragooned onstage, in suitably Brechtian manner, to try his hand at professional begging. The night I saw it, the volunteer immediately fell to his knees and portrayed himself as a victim of Katrina, left to die by a callous president. Seems there’s a bit of Brecht in all of us.

The Odyssey production, under the direction of artistic director Ron Sossi, is a good introduction to the piece for the uninitiated and a sturdy enough revival in its own right.

Threepenny tells the tale of the doomed love affair of Macheath, London’s reigning thug, and Polly Peachum, the deceptively sweet daughter of a successful businessman who specializes in human misery and controls the city’s beggars. Based loosely on John Gay’s much earlier Beggars’ Opera, it is filled with betrayals, schemes, revenge, reversals of fortune, and Weill’s famously dissonant score.

Most people know the story of Macheath, if they know it at all, from Bobby Darin’s bouncy cover of Mack the Knife, the plays signature song. The Weill original is a different brew altogether, far more bracing and a bit raw when taken straight. The same is true for most of the score, which flirts with pop conventions but never quite gives in.

It’s Weill’s score that proves the downfall for most productions of Threepenny and the Odyssey’s effort is no exception. Most of the performers fall well short of the vocal abilities the music demands. To their credit they give it a game try, substituting a sort of growling Brechtian talk-singing when the notes elude them. Unfortunately, we suffer along with them.

The acting side of the equation is a good deal better and director Sossi has chosen his cast well. On top of that Gelareh Khalioun has costumed them with telling attention to detail on what was obviously a minimal budget and Travis Gale Lewis’ sets and Derrick McDaniel’s lighting provide a nicely decomposing London industrial background for the proceedings.

There are a number of standouts in the cast. Paul Dillon’s dapper Macheath is an admirably creepy and strangely charismatic sociopath. With his clown white makeup (a Brechtian touch used nicely in this production) he is now a death’s head, now a silent movie crook, and always projecting the rugged appeal of a Hollywood tough guy. It’s a combination that works wonderfully for the play. As Filch, the Everyman street hustler who narrates the play and kibitzes with the audience, Alan Abelew has some nice moments.

Best of all is Robert Machray, who is quite simply superb as Mr. Peachum. A large man who moves with surprising grace when the moment calls for it, Machray’s Peachum is a protean figure serving both as an exemplar of a corrupt society and an enlightened observer of human folly. He is also the only member of the cast who is comfortable with the music. When he opens his mouth to sing, you can almost feel the audience relax, knowing they are in the presence of a real professional.

The Odyssey is a 35 year old “waiver house,” L.A.’s term for a theater where actors work for less than a pittance in exchange for the chance to hone their chops and, perhaps, get seen by Hollywood big shots who, it seems, never go to the theater.

Threepenny runs through November 6, 2005. Tickets are $23 to $28. For more information call 310-477-2055 or log on to www.odysseytheatre.com

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Threepenny Opera at the Odyssey A Review

By Kelly Monaghan

Threepenny Opera at the Odyssey
A Review