Word: beggared
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...also the best part of the Adams House Drama Society's valiant--if not altogether successful--rendering of John Gay's classic The Beggar's Opera. Audience involvement in the cast's antics is the keynote of this production; if the rest of the show can't fulfill the promises of the opening, it's at least partly because the audience has a hard time getting involved in a series of jokes it can't understand...
...sure, high class ladies still affect airs and politicians are still crooks, but we no longer comprehend Gay's jabs at Walpole and his ministers, nor do we have as much patience with the constant appellation of every woman as "hussy" or "slut". Not, for that matter, is The Beggar's Opera any longer completely successful as a musical parody of Italian opera, since the popular ballads that comprise its score are popular no more...
Birdsall's strong soprano voice, however, partially compensates for the weakness of her acting. Musically, in fact, the entire cast of The Beggar's Opera is unimpeachable. While Ben Cox's Macheath displays more world-weariness and self-parody than vigor, he sings in a melodious high tenor that does ample justice to Gay's ballads. Toulouse too has an outstanding, well-controlled soprano--although her duets with Polly would be more effective were she a contralto...
There are some wonderful moments in The Beggar's Opera--Master Kiely all grimaces and contortions as the Beggar/playwright, Macheath's gang lustily anticipating their booty, the prostitutes--each with a distinctive dress and a personality to match--swinging their way across the stage, mimicking lords and ladies and boasting gleefully of their conquests. Sharp characterizations of the prostitutes and gang members perfectly the rowdiness and vibrancy of the London underworld make these last scenes the most exciting in the production...
Despite the exertions of a talented cast, The Beggar's Opera founders as a result of sheer length. As a play, Gay's opera is too concerned with satire to retain much dramatic force, and three hours of sometimes dated humor interspersed with dozens of similar-sounding ballads is just too much tediousness for mere talent to overcome...