New Line Theatre's THREEPENNY OPERA Opens Tonight

New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," closes its 24th season of adult, alternative musical theatre in June with one of the masterpieces of the art form, the darkly satiric THREEPENNY OPERA (which isn't really an opera), running tonight, May 28-June 20, 2015.

New Line's season closes with the dark, comic masterpiece, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's world-famous musical comedy THE THREEPENNY OPERA, in the famous translation by Marc Blitzstein ( The Cradle Will Rock). This is the show that launched the pop standard, "Mack the Knife." With its haunting jazz score, acid harmonies, biting lyrics, and questionable morals, this is the show that inspired Cabaret, Urinetown, Sweeney Todd, Bat Boy, Urinetown, and so many other modern musicals. It's an ironic morality tale about brutal paradoxes, about redemption for the irredeemable, about devotion to the undeserving, and about justice serving the unjust. Originally opening in Berlin in 1928, the show later became the first mega-hit off Broadway in the 1950s, running over 2,700 performances. It's now one of the most revived musicals around the world, having been translated into eighteen languages and performed more than 10,000 times.

For more about the show, visit http://www.newlinetheatre.com/3popage.html

The New Line cast includes Todd Schaefer as Capt. MacHeath; Zachary Allen Farmer as Mr. Peachum; Sarah Porter as Mrs. Peachum; Cherlynn Alvarez as Polly; Christopher "Zany" Clark as Tiger Brown; Christina Rios as Lucy Brown; Nikki Glenn as Jenny Diver; and Reynaldo Arceno, Brian Claussen, Kent Coffel, Jeremy Hyatt, Todd Micali, Kimi Short, Margeau Baue Steinau, Luke Steingruby, and Larissa White. Scott Miller directs, with music direction by Jeffery Richard Carter, scenic design by Rob Lippert, costume design by Sarah Porter, lighting design by Kenneth Zinkl, and sound design by Ben Rosemann.

The New York Post called the show "a distinguished and delightful work of art, striking, sardonic, original, humorous and always interesting." The New York Times wrote in 1954, "You are not listening to shop-made jazz. You are listening to a master of his craft, saying in his score all sorts of things, with world weariness, compassion and despair." Cue called it "sordid and beautiful." The Chicago Sun-Times wrote of a 2008 production, "With Brecht's cuttingly satirical look at the meaning of morality in a society populated by gangsters, beggars, prostitutes and corrupt cops, and Weill's edgy, opera-meets-cabaret score, the show is all but irresistible."

THE THREEPENNY OPERA runs May 28-June 20, 2015, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, at 8:00 p.m., at the Washington University South Campus Theatre (formerly CBC High School), 6501 Clayton Road, just east of Big Bend. May 28 is a preview. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students/seniors on Fridays and Saturdays; and $20 for adults and $15 for students/seniors on Thursdays. For other information, visit New Line Theatre's full-service website at www.newlinetheatre.com . All programs are subject to change.

ABOUT NEW LINE THEATRE

New Line Theatre is a professional company dedicated to involving the people of the St. Louis region in the exploration and creation of daring, provocative, socially and politically relevant works of musical theatre. New Line was created back in 1991 at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre just starting to take hold across the country. New Line has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life several shows that were not well served by their original New York productions. Altogether, New Line has produced 73 musicals since 1991, and the company was recently given its own entry in the Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. New Line receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

To post a comment, you must register and login.