Preview: The Threepenny OperaRaleigh Little Theatre Preview Mack the Knife Is Back in Town in “The Threepenny On June 3-5, 9-12, and 16-19, Raleigh Little Theatre will conclude its 2010-11 main-stage series with Marc Blitzstein’s sensational 1954 translation/adaptation of The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper), in its Cantey V. Sutton Main Stage Theatre. Blitzstein’s Off-Broadway hit features music by German-Jewish composer Kurt Weill (1900-50) and lyrics and book by German-Marxist poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). The Threepenny Opera, which had its world premiere in August 1928 in Berlin, is based on The Beggar’s Opera, an 18th-century ballad opera by English dramatist and poet John Gay (1685-1732), which Brecht transformed into a scathing Marxist critique of capitalism in Victorian London. “I guess I was exposed to The Threepenny Opera kind of in vitro,” quips long-time RLT artistic director Haskell Fitz-Simons. “My father had a recording of the old 1954 version, which we wore out at home. I was in it in college, and I have directed The Beggar’s Opera — on which [The Threepenny Opera] is based — twice…. So, I know the material pretty well, plus all of the music is engraved in my DNA.” Read the rest of the preview at Triangle Arts & Entertainment. You are here: Home > Reviews and articles about the theatre's productions > Preview: The Threepenny Opera |