[img]394|left|Jeff Griggs and Zarah Mahler in the ICT's Production of 'The Threepenny Opera'||no_popup[/img] I can appreciate, years later, the unpleasant irony embodied by that McDonald’s commercial featuring a moon man singing “Mac Tonight” to the tune of Mack the Knife’s ballad. “The Threepenny Opera” – one of those pieces you hear spoken about in reverent tones, kind of like one of those literary books you’re supposed to read, but can somehow never find – is anything but a hymn to crass commercialism. But McDonald’s memorably exploited the tune to sell burgers without an ounce of the shame people outside of advertising tend to feel when doing something so transparently self-serving. Bertolt Brecht – and Kurt Weill, who composed the music – would be so proud, I’m sure, to see their timeless social critique used to advertise the very values they questioned, especially given the added-value irony of a company making lots of money selling cheap food. It’s the Wal-Mart principle; sell products the poor can afford – regardless of ancillary environmental, social and labour costs – and justify company owners’ exorbitant, disproportional wealth by hiding behind claims of doing the poor a favour. Such is the nobility that earns Brecht’s withering scorn.

What Really Galls

It may not have much by way of character psychology, and Mack the Knife’s troubles with women and rivals among Victorian society’s downtrodden offers only a thin thread of plot, but the satirical, borderline-polemic window into the brutish lives of the poor certainly draws blood. It’s the invisibility of poverty that galls, the way in which the upper-classes gradually immunize themselves to the presence of less fortunate folk to the point that these folk might as well not exist. In the most cutting scenes, this observation is astutely made, and exploited, by the wily Mr. Peachum (scene-stealer Tom Shelton), who runs a business of licensed beggars, each with specific costumes and spiels designed to worm past the moneyed classes’ mental defenses.

And so there are beggars and thieves, corrupt cops and whores, and double-dealings galore in Brecht’s jab in the eye. The International City Theatre puts on a sassy production at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center – sharp, except when dulled by Eileen T’Kaye’s off-pitch turn as Mrs. Peachum and, critically, all but blunted by Jeff Griggs overacting, charmless turn as Mack the Knife. It’s a good thing John Iacovelli’s set design is robust enough to withstand all of Griggs’s chewing, but the production nonetheless suffers when a vital character – a quick-tempered murderer and pimp who somehow charms the good girls – lacks in seductive credibility. But the band plays on, the bulk of the cast hits the right notes, and the music has all the razzle-dazzle jazz that pulls everything together into an enjoyable production that, in these economic times, pokes hard at the gap between the have-nots, the haves, and the have-mores.

The Threepenny Opera. Book and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. Music by Kurt Weill. Based on Elizabeth Hauptmann's German translation of The Beggar's Opera by John Gay. Translated by Michael Feingold. Directed by Jules Aaron. Starring Jeff Griggs, Shannon Warne, Tom Skelton, Eileen T’Kaye, Paul Zegler, Rachel Genevieve and Zarah Mahler. On stage at the International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, through Sunday, March 22. 562.436.4610. www.ictlongbeach.org

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