COM's 'Threepenny Opera,' featuring Carla Zilbersmith and David A. Moss

(This was a decidedly mixed review, first published in the Marin Independent Journal, of a College of Marin production of "Threepenny Opera," featuring David A. Moss and CARLA ZILBERSMITH.

It should also be noted, in all fairness, that director Jim Dunn was absent due to illness during the rehearsals of this production. I was restricted, at the time, from making reference to Dunn's illness, and it was my obligation to report on the production I saw.

Please note the paragraph, in boldface, that makes reference to Zilbersmith's stunning performance. I re-post it here in Carla's memory.)

COM’s lackluster

‘Threepenny Opera’

or,
It’s hard out there
for a pimp

By Mark Langton

IJ Correspondent

Like a mixed metaphor with a delayed fuse, the College of Marin opened a rendition of “The Three-Penny Opera” Friday that starts out all fizzle and no steak – only to sneak up on you and explode in the second half.

Not even a standout performance by David Alan Moss as MacHeath (aka Mackie Messer, or “Mack the Knife”) can save the first half of this mostly lackluster production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Marxist reworking of John Gay’s 1728 “Begger’s Opera.”

None of the mischievous Brechtian wordplay or intrinsic political, social and sexual overtones of the original text appears to be on display, or celebrated, here. As the large cast spills out onto a mostly empty stage for the opening number, a monotonous rendition of “Moritat” (the song known as “Mack the Knife”), far from the grotesque rogues’ gallery of thieves, prostitutes and beggars of Victorian London’s starving class we have come to expect, we are greeted instead by a crowd of actors in period costume who look more like the affable street urchins from “Oliver!” or the chirpy flower merchants of “My Fair Lady.”

Sandra Tanner’s choreography is perhaps deliberately awkward, with many in the cast looking like the life-sized, rotating figures at Playland’s old Fun House, or on an old German clock.

Things start looking up with Moss’ elegant entrance as MacHeath. He begins with a classy, snap-brim, Sinatra-style silhouette at center stage, followed by a chilling, slow motion pimp stroll through the crowd that accurately conveyed the menace of a character who is a murderer, rapist, thief and arsonist (Brecht’s idea of an average capitalist). However, even here, Moss -- who has a reputation among local directors as a rare actor who comes to the first rehearsal with his lines already memorized – did not appear to be in complete command of the material in a few spots on opening night. He is also an actor of nuance, whose subtlety was sometimes lost in the cacophony onstage. There are things he, or the director, could have done to remedy this, but they did not.

The tale is narrated by a duo of street singers played by Eric Batz and Sandi V. Weldon. Batz, who was eerily effective as the Emcee in the COM production of “Cabaret” a couple of seasons ago, performs his narration duties this time in full drag, as does his singing partner Weldon. Unfortunately, Weldon’s mustachioed circus master is nearly engulfed by a newly self-indulgent Batz, who, this time, put more ego than talent on display. A shame, as his talent is considerable.

The tale they tell is of this dapper prince of thieves and bigamous brigand who has begun to get his “Mack on” with the questionably virginal Polly (played in strident, mall rat dialect by Dane Lynn Cherry), daughter of beggar king J.J. Peachum (played with broad strokes – perhaps too broad -- by veteran actor Ian Swift) and his wife, Mrs. Peachum (with a layered performance by Gloria Wood that grows on you, notably in the number, “Ballad of Dependency”). Despising MacHeath, Mr. Peachum plots the thief's downfall with the help of his best friend, corrupt police official Tiger Brown (stiffly played by Robert Smithton) succeeding in sending MacHeath to the gallows, thanks, in part, to the betrayal of MacHeath’s ex, Jenny Diver (Carla Zilbersmith).

What nearly saves this show in the second half is Zilbersmith’s astonishing performance as Jenny, who first smolders, then burns, then explodes onto the stage with a couple of show-stopping numbers (“Pirate Jenny” and “Solomon Song“). An unconventional beauty with obvious gobs of talent, Zilbersmith’s performance was, in a word, hot -- so hot that several collars were visibly loosened in the first couple of rows. In fact, her performance may just be worth the price of admission.

Modeled after the plague-ridden London of Gay's 1728 “Beggar’s

Opera,” despite its 1890’s London setting, the play’s deliberately sordid veneer is clearly meant to be a metaphor for Nazi-infested Berlin of the 1930s. So much more imagination could have gone into this production to convey this. There is nothing particularly malevolent about Macheath’s gang of thieves – who were more like Bob Newhart’s TV handyman Larry and his brother Daryl and his other brother Daryl. Likewise, Jenny’s chorus of “fallen women” looked like they still had a ways to fall – looking more like the girls from “Petticoat Junction.”

As to the set, there is none to speak of, only a rummage sale collection of old coats, hung incongruously in the rafters. Perhaps this was a tip of the hat to the piece’s gallows’ humor, though it would behoove one not to reach too far for these things. Sometimes minimalism is short for a lack of imagination. Even if the stark, spartan set could be explained away as some kind of outward manifestation of Brechtian alienation, it still doesn’t work, for it still has no connection whatsoever to Brecht’s lacerating view of a bourgeois hell in which hypocrisy is the coin of the realm. What happed to the voyage of the damned director James Dunn took audiences on in his 2004 production of “Cabaret?”

The passion required in the acting and music are absent, there’s no visual focus to the staging, scenes begging for it pass by without the bite of black humor, the tango reunion of Macheath and Jenny that was no tango at all … so many missed opportunities.

Anyone accustomed to the decadent, jarring sound of Singspiel in the ''Threepenny'' songs may be disappointed by the lassitude of the small orchestra under Boyd Jarrell’s musical direction. Weill's score is as seductive as ever, dream-like with its deliberately discordant passages and disturbing dissonance. This orchestra is no doubt just as deliberate in its attempt to sound like a drunk with the whirlies. Still, one longed to see what Tom Waits might have done with this score – come to think of it, with any one of these roads not taken -- and a few old, rebuilt swordfish trombones.

IF YOU GO: “The Threepenny Opera,” College of Marin. Performances are at 8 pm on March 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 and at 2 pm on March 11, 12 and 19.Admission i $18 general and $15 for students and seniors and will be on sale at the College of Marin Box Office after February 21. Seating is open and on the main stage. VISA and MasterCard are accepted and group rates are available.

(Click to enlarge)