Word: brecht
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THAT WHIRRING NOISE you hear is Kurt Weill spinning in his grave. When he and Bertolt Brecht wrote Threepenny Opera, Happy End, and Mahagonny, they never dreamed that their operas would be performed in the ballroom of the Somerset Hotel, in front of a group of Scotch-sipping, fur-clad, overstuffed suburbanites. The producers of September Song have done to Weill exactly what Brecht complained had been done to Billy's Bawd House in Balbao: "They've made it bourgeois...
...microphones in front of the stage, September Song can be an enjoyable evening. The show presents a fairly accurate survey of Weill's work, divided neatly into two acts, the first mostly political, the second heavy on the old-fashioned show biz. Weill composed for lyricists as diverse as Brecht and Ogden Nash, and the creators of September Song have culled the best of all his lyricists for their show...
September Song's first section consists of a large chunk of Threepenny Opera. The cast-does a fairly good interpretation of this masterpiece of the Brecht-Weill collaboration, although Marc Blitzstein's creaky English translations, especially of "How to Survive" and "Pirate Jenny," are beginning to show their age. Blitzstein's lyrics do not fit the rhythm of the music as well as they should, and it may well be time for someone to try his hand at a new version. Blitzstein's "Mack the Knife," of course, will never be replaced, but the rest of his songs are uneven...
...Exception and the Rule. By Bertolt Brecht. Caravan Theatre, Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church, 1555 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. Fri., Sat., 9 p.m. $3. Thru...
...Exception and the Rule. Bertolt Brecht's drama about justice and humanity. The Caravan Theater, every...