The Threepenny Opera: A Directorʼs Take on an Unconventional Musical

Abstract

After placing "The Threepenny Opera" within the context of the evolution of the musical comedy from light entertainment to serving as a mirror for the issues of society, the director recounts his own experience staging the Brecht/Weill musical in terms of its metadramatic statement, the paradox of its self-effacing nature coupled with serious political issues, the role of its audience at once engaged and disengaged, the function of its unconventional score, and the work as reflecting the larger world offstage. His production draws and comments on stagings of this unconventional musical over the past eighty years.