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The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera

Shows · The Threepenny Opera

The reason for the two engagements noted above is that the initial showing of Marc Blitzstein’s English-language version of the Kurt Weill-Bertold Brecht Die Dreigroschenoper at the Theatre de Lys (now the Lucille Lortel) had to be terminated because of a prior booking. Led by critic Brooks Atkinson, public demand brought it back 15 months after the closing, with cast replacements including Frederic Downs for Leon Li…

Opened
1954
Performances
95
Type
Musical
Era
Golden Age
Music: Kurt WeillLyrics: Marc BlitzsteinBook: Marc Blitzstein

Productions2 on Broadway

1954 Theatre de Lys Original. March 10, 1954 · Carmen Capalbo 95 performances
2006 Studio 54 Revival. April 20, 2006 · Scott Elliott 77 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing not confirmed

Rights We have not been able to confirm the publisher.

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature47 passages

Among the more than 200 actors who played the 22 parts during the show’s run were Carole Cook, Valerie Bettis, and Dolly Haas (Jenny); James Mitchell and Jerry Orbach (Mack); Pert Kelton and Nancy Andrews (Mrs. Peachum); Georgia Brown (Lucy); Edward Asner (Peachum); and Estelle Parsons (Mrs. Coaxer). book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p154

America saw the first musical comedy in 1750 when a traveling company offered the premiere North American showing of The Beggar's Opera (whose most celebrated spinoff was Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera). book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p21

The reason for the two engagements noted above is that the initial showing of Marc Blitzstein’s English-language version of the Kurt Weill-Bertold Brecht Die Dreigroschenoper at the Theatre de Lys (now the Lucille Lortel) had to be terminated because of a prior booking. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p183

At this writing, the return engagement is the second longest running production ever mounted Off Broadway. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p183

At the same festival, Marc Blitzstein’s adaptation of The Threepenny Opera premiered, and it was Brooks who created the role of Blitzstein’s Macheath; and during the musical’s marathon Off-Broadway run beginning in the mid-1950s, Atkinson was one of many performers who played Macheath. book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p370

There have been a number of film versions of The Beggar’s Opera and The Threepenny Opera. The latter has been adapted as The 3 Penny Opera (1931; Lotte Lenya and Rudolph Forster); The Threepenny Opera (1964; Hildegarde Neff, Curt Jurgens, Sammy Davis, Jr.); and Mack the Knife (1989; Raul Julia and Julia Migenes). book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p618

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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