MIHS drama presents ‘The Threepenny Opera’

Published 9:42 am Tuesday, January 25, 2011

This winter, the Mercer Island High School drama program will pull audiences to the opposite end of the spectrum from the light-hearted adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” presented in fall.

“The Threepenny Opera,” a masterpiece of musical theater first performed in Berlin in 1928, is sardonic and brittle. German playwright, Bertolt Brecht, and composer, Kurt Weill, paint a grim picture of an underworld peopled by beggars, thieves, and prostitutes. There is no honor; every character would sell out any other if an advantage is to be gained. At its savage, thrillingly contradictory heart, is Kurt Weill’s raw, jazzy and intensely beautiful music, including the chilling classic, “Mack the Knife.”

Performances for “The Threepenny Opera” begin this weekend with the show opening on Jan. 27. It will run Jan. 27-29 and Feb. 3-5. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

All shows start at 7:30 p.m. in the MIHS Performing Arts Center.