On The Stage
Catering & Banquet Services
Since 1988
In association with the
ea* 611 1 fitof
are proud to announce
the opening of the new
Banquet & Event Center
Mack The Knife's Back In Town
Look out! Criminals and beggars take center stage
in Weill and Brecht's satirical "Threepenny Opera."
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
Wedding Receptions
Bridal & Baby Showers
Graduations
Corporate Events
T
Reservations now being
taken through 2005
This is a smoke and Liquorfree environment
Call for details
248.689.2494
www.Emeraldfood.com
817980
• Gift Baskets
• Sweet Trays
• Muffins
• Soups
• Cookies
Everything Made Fresh Daily
Voted Best Challah Bread!
$1.00 Off Any
Bread
Order
1 coupon per order
Expires 04/30/04
Not good with any mho- •iscount or special
offer. Not valid on holiday orders
4/16
2004
46
24-hour notice please on
specialty items
(some exceptions)
6879 Orc6rd take Rd.
in the Boardwalk Plaza
248 626-9110
-
Ann Arbor
he current election
season provides an
appropriate con-
text to savor polit-
ical theater created by com-
poser Kurt Weill and play-
wright Bertolt Brecht.
A production of their
best-known work, The
Threepenny Opera, will be
staged in Ann Arbor — as
two newly released books
give insight into the piece.
"Kurt Weill on Stage" author
The musical, first per-
Foster Hirsch writes that
formed in 1920s Germany,
Weill, the son of a cantor,
will be staged April 22-May
"showed his Jewish musical
30 by the Performance
background with harmonies
Network. Its late creators
that had Jewish liturgical
provided a view of the crim- notes."
inal underworld of the past
with implications for today's
society.
The title of the production
has to do with its being an
opera about beggars. The
timelessness of the plot has to
do with the timelessness of
corruption, greed, hypocrisy
and political compromise.
Under the direction of
Malcolm Tulip, the play fea-
tures mezzo-soprano Rochelle
Rosenthal as Mrs. Peachum,
Rochelle Rosenthal
wife of the king of beggars,
(Mrs. Peachum) is active
and folksinger Daniel Kahn in
at Temple Israel and has
several ensemble roles.
performed for JET
"The rich get richer and the
poor get poorer in this show,"
says Rosenthal, who tours in programs developed by the
Michigan Opera Theatre. "It's quite a satire comparing
the lives of the poor to the rich."
Rosenthal, who spent four years performing at clubs
and resorts in New York, has one solo, "Sexual Depend-
ency," and sings with others in "Mack the Knife."
She believes audiences will find the issues relevant.
"I hear the music, and it gets in my head really quick-
ly," says Rosenthal, a Birmingham resident who has per-
formed in plays for the Jewish Ensemble Theatre and is
active with Temple Israel, both in West Bloomfield. "I
think audiences will find it all makes for a very interest-
ing piece."
Turbulent Times
The play's history, with emphasis on productions in the
830600
United States, is discussed in Foster Hirsch's Kurt Weill
on Stage: From Berlin to Broadway (Limelight Editions;
$20) and Alexis Greene's Lucille Lortel: The Queen of Off
Broadway (Limelight Editions; $30).
Hirsch explains The Threepenny Opera as depicting a
time of political and economic instability. He also
describes the work as a blend of musical styles from clas-
sical to jazz — and a model for musicals that followed as
it sets unusual subject matter to music.
"Readers of my book will learn the circumstances of the
original production and the difficult collaboration of Weill
and Brecht," says Hirsch, ascribing the enduring success of
the piece to a score tkat carries the mood and tone of the
subject. "The clash of personalities seemed to add to the
tension of the work, but the irony is that it's a comedy.
"Weill was the son of a cantor and wrote popular music
with classical underpinnings," says Hirsch, a film profes-
sor at Brooklyn College and an author of numerous books
on film and theater. "He showed his Jewish musical back-
ground with harmonies that had Jewish liturgical notes,
although they were fractured and turned upside down."
Kurt Weill and wife, Lotte Lenya, in 1945
Off Broadway Revival
Author Greene presents information on how The
Threepenny Opera was brought to the New York stage in
the 1950s as she reviews the life of Lucille Lortel, an
actress who descended from Eastern European Jews,
married a paper manufacturer of considerable wealth
and became known as a legendary producer in theaters
he bought for her.
"The Threepenny Opera gives an edgy view of the world
through marvelous characters, and Lortel was looking for