Word: peachum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Macheath, always the gentleman, marries Peachum's daughter Polly in a stable; when Peachum finds out he vows to have Macheath hanged. He finally catches the man-about-town at his weekly appointment with his whore, Jenny. This, of course, is the role Lotte Lenya made famous, and it's central to the show. Marylou Ledden plays the part with sense--she catches the world-weariness in Brecht better than anyone else in the cast. But her inadequate singing must be the reason the director, Harvey Seifter, gives Jenny's big number, "Pirate Jenny," to Polly Peachum (Ann Titolo) instead...
...white gloves, cane and jackknife--has become a stage favorite. The king of the underworld who's best friends with the chief of police strides through The Threepenny, Opera refusing to be judged. Women, of course, fall all over him, and he's married two (at least). Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the "king of the beggars," a less familiar character, acts as Brecht's mouthpiece to deliver the show's straight-forward message: don't condemn how others earn their next meal until you're faced with missing one yourself. Working, begging, taking bribes, stealing--they blur together in Brecht...
Other performers in the Caravan production are obviously talented but don't even try to be sordid. You would be glad to have Ida Beecher's Mrs. Peachum as your grandmother; she plays the kind old lady to perfection, but brings an element of benevolence onto Brecht's stage that doesn't belong there...
CLIFFORD WOODWORTH as Mr. Peachum seems to understand Brecht better, and his operatic voice adds to his performance. It was a shame to see him have to glance up at the conductor (Paul D. Lehrman) in confusion as the musical ensemble fell apart during the finale to Act I. From the opening bars of the overture, Lehrman takes the score at a gallop. He doesn't give the music the time it needs to fester, to spread its fumes; more importantly, the singers couldn't keep up with the pace. (If you want to hear Weill's music...
Granted that premise, this production is riveting. As a monocled Mack the Knife, Raul Julia moves like a Fred Astaire of gangsterdom, sometimes prowling for his favorite whore, Jenny (Ellen Greene). C.K. Alexander's Mr. Peachum-the Fagin of London's turn-of-the-century beggars-might have been drawn by George Grosz. The Kurt Weill score, too renowned for praise (Mack the Knife, Pirate Jenny), is superbly rendered. This Threepenny Opera honors the Brecht who wrote with a hammer and swung a sickle. T.E, Kalem