Mack The Knife in Seattle
February 23, 2011 by Hedonista · Leave a Comment
Who (or what) is Mack the Knife?
The answer: both.
Aside from the nickname of Captain Macheath (a.k.a., Mackie Messer), the main character and dapper criminal (murderer, rapist, arsonist, and thief) in a musical theatrical production based on an 18th-century ballad opera written in 1728, “Mack the Knife” is the name of one of the most well-known songs of all time and a jazz standard to this day.
Ranked 251st on “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list by Rolling Stone, “Mack the Knife” is tells of the danger of this highwayman antihero. (Still not ringing a bell? Then go pick your fav artist’s rendition on YouTube – merely search for “Mack the Knife.”) And to think this song was added to the original show at the last minute! Created by composer Kurt Weill to pair with the book and lyrics of German dramatist and a founder of epic/dialectical theatre, Bertolt Brecht, this work was written in 1928 in Germany under the hedonistic decadence, freedoms, and pre-Hitler harmony of the Weimar Republic. What’s more, it revolutionized musical theatre through its use as a venue for biting critique and social commentary and inspired offspring include Cabaret, Chicago, and Urinetown. Both men fled Germany in 1933 with the rise of Adolph Hitler; Kurt Weill died in 1950 in New York, as Marc Blitzstein began the English translation: from 18th-century poet and playwright John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera to Die Dreigroschenoper to The Threepenny Opera (which Marc Blitzstein almost named “Shoestring Opera”).
Jerick Hoffer as Filch and Russell Hodgkinson as Mr. J.J. Peachum. (Photo by John Ulman, provided by the Seatlle Shakespeare Company, and used with permission.)
This re-made classic – set in 1837 London at the time of Queen Victoria’s Coronation – has now come to town, dear hedonists: Seattleites can experience it at Intiman Theatre from February 17th through March 6th, 2011. (Your Hedonista was invited as a media attendee.) Produced by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, directed by Stephanie Shine, and with the role of Macheath performed by John Bogar, this play entertains while it informs, reminding its audience that life is both serious and tragic as well as fanciful and comedic.
As a result, this show is not your typical musical, but rather a dark satire made up of an interesting hybrid of actor-singers (or maybe singer-actors) who relay an opera the way you’d think the fanciful fringes and impoverished underbelly of society would: in a bare-bones fairy tale of rags to riches, of getting by, nearly biting it, then finally becoming Baron (literally).
John Bogar as Macheath (Mack the Knife) and Allison Standley as Polly Peachum. (Photo by John Ulman, provided by the Seatlle Shakespeare Company, and used with permission.)
Oh, and getting the girl – Miss Polly Peachum, a role taken on by Allison Standley – in spite of her parents’ disapproval, of course.
For these criminals make no apologies for their wrongdoings: “Food comes first, morals follow on.” Corruption throughout society, and the satire of poverty, politics, and injustice are themes throughout this production.
That’s right, the dashing yet dastardly Captain Macheath’s luck seems to be as golden as his greed, as he evolves from retched to respectable … if only in title.
No wonder there’s such a popular song about him.
The 14 performances of The Threepenny Opera run Thursdays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m., with a 2:00 p.m. show on Saturdays and Sundays; tickets range from $20.00 to $40.00 per person.
