2/24/2023 0 Comments Opera neon review![]() But the fact the gym-toned beggar is clad in impeccable leather gear kind of dissipates the social meaning of the moment. The great scene where Peachum schools one into how to panhandle has moments of audience awkwardness, when Elliott has his the actor, an African American, go into the posh front rows to beg and then tells the patrons to fuck themselves. But is all the decadence on stage a little too cool? The beggars here come off as less poor than trendy. Elliott clearly intends to offend the audience and confront it with Brecht's unpleasant statements in blunt fashion. The minimalist neon settings (more outlines) by Derek McLane also may seem "anachronistic" yet cleverly conjure up in their elegant shorthand urban decadence-that of the old Times Square, really.Īll this reinvention, though, downplays one crucial element of Threepenny: the, uh, politics. You can't exactly say such a scene was unknown to Brecht, especially when you look at his early work, like the hedonist world of Baal. So what we get from Elliott, Mizrahi and company is an intriguing post-punk milieu for the play, the inspiration clearly being the play's own Weimar Republic era, but with some updated decadence. I for one was glad to see someone disrupt this, especially since some revivals (I'm thinking of the 1989 one with Sting!) have drifted too easily into a Masterpiece Theatre nostalgia that inevitably serves up "culinary" delights to an American audience, no matter what the intention. Visually this approach allows Elliott to deliberately jettison any old ideas of what we think Threepenny ought to look like-namely the Victorian trappings of Brecht's stipulated setting. ![]() (An interpolated "Crying Game" moment settles this.) The most questionable "adaptation" is casting Mack's mistress Lucy Brown with male countertenor Brian Charles Rooney, who plays the character quite clearly as a man in drag. ![]() Mack's hideout is a club scene-obviously inspired by the very Studio 54 where the show is performed. Along with Isaac Mizrahi, he has repopulated it with leathermen, cross-dressers, and, in a particularly jarring finale, a scantily clad gold-lamee muscle-bound winged messenger. Let's be clear: Elliott's rethinking of Threepenny is a "queer"reading. Yet I must stick to my guns and defend why I felt this production remains a worthwhile and sometimes rewarding "experiment" even if it violates some of the sacred tenets of Brechtianism and often of just good taste. The reviews have been savage and Michael Riedel even reports the Tony nominators were embarrassed to have to fill out the Best Revival category with it. As I wrote after seeing a preview in April, I knew Scott Elliott's Threepenny Opera at the Roundabout was probably going to be received as some kind of disaster.Īnd so it has been. ![]()
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