The Threepenny Opera Begins Previews March 24

Roundabout Theatre Company's The Threepenny Opera will begin preview performances on Friday, March 24th, 2006 as a part of their 40th Anniversary Season.  Featuring a translation and adaptation by Wallace Shawn/> (Aunt Dan and Lemon), the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht musical will open at Studio 54 on April 20th and run through June 18th.

The Threepenny Opera, directed by Scott Elliott/> (Barefoot in the Park, Hurlyburly) and choreographed by Aszure Barton, will feature Cyndi Lauper/> as Jenny Diver, Ana Gasteyer/> (Wicked in Chicago) as Mrs. Peachum, Tony Award-winner Jim Dale/> (Barnum, Candide) as Mr. Peachum, Tony Award-winner Alan Cumming/> (Cabaret, Design for Living) as Macheath and Nellie McKay/> (the best-selling album "Get Away From Me") as Polly Peachum.  Also in the cast are Christopher Innvar as Tiger Brown, Carlos Leon as Filtch, Brian Charles Rooney as Lucy and Adam Alexi-Malle, Terry Burrell/>, Brian Butterick, David Cale, Romain Fruge, John Herrera, Nehal Joshi/>, Christopher Kenney, Maureen Moore/>, Brooke Sunny Moriber/>, Deborah Lew/>, Valisia Lekae Little, Kevin Joseph Rennard, and Lucas Steele.
 
"The Threepenny Opera serves up a deliciously dark satire of 'respectable; society, with dashing thieves, saucy prostitutes, and lingering melodies. Based on Elizabeth Hauptmann's German translation of John Gay/>'s eighteenth-century The Beggar's Opera, The Threepenny Opera thrusts the audience into the seedy underworld of Mack the Knife, a dapper criminal and his wry love affair with Polly Peachum," state production notes. Originally produced in Germany, The Threepenny Opera premiered on Broadway at the Empire Theatre on April 13, 1933 and received a historic off-Broadway production (with Weill's wife Lotte Lenya as Jenny) from 1955 to 1961. The most recent Broadway revival (starring Sting and Maureen McGovern/>) opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 5th, 1989.