Some Threepenny Discs---Part Two
Just as there are various versions of the film, there are at least two soundtrack albums. The one I have is on RCA Victor, and seems to represent the 1964 U.S. release with Davis. It features the Blitzstein lyrics, albeit with some revisions, and the recording allows one to hear a few of the Blitzstein lyrics especially in "Mack the Knife" that were censored for the off-Broadway recording.
RCA Victor's soundtrack features the singing voices of George S. Irving as Macheath; Martha Schlamme as Jenny; Jo Wilder as Polly; and Jane Connell as Mrs. Peachum. The last two ladies played the same roles at some point during the off-Broadway run. But there is also a London Records LP featuring the German film soundtrack with the original Brecht lyrics. And it's not clear whether or not the Blitzstein soundtrack heard on the RCA disc was ever actually used to accompany the film. That's because the English-language version of the film that was released on VHS and apparently shown in Europe and on TV features English lyrics by Eric Bentley, with the exception of Davis's Streetsinger, who gets Blitzstein's lyrics.
Although the Streetsinger usually sings only the "Moritat" "Mack the Knife", the role, as heard on the Victor soundtrack, has been expanded for Davis, who also gets Jenny's "Solomon Song" and "How to Survive," the latter originally sung by Macheath and Mrs. Peachum. Polly retains her "Barbara Song," but Jenny Knef/Schlamme gets "Pirate Jenny."
Missing from the Blitzstein version of the score on RCA's soundtrack album are the "Army Song," "Wedding Song," and "Ballad of the Easy Life." There's a new overture, and the musical director is Samuel Matlovsky, who also led the off-Broadway/de Lys production. As always, Davis sings superbly, but he's rather too smooth-sounding for this music.
The first Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera was presented by Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival when they were in residence at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre. It opened on May 1, 1976, fifteen years after the closing of the off-Broadway production, and it was strikingly staged by avant-garde director Richard Foreman. Foreman's frequent composing collaborator, Stanley Silverman, was musical director.
The production, which ran a healthy 306 performances, offered the premiere of a new English translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett that is the most significant feature on Columbia Records' 1976 Broadway cast recording. In the notes for the LP which has never been issued on CD, Papp, while lauding the landmark off-Broadway production, states that Blitzstein "vitiated the political and sexual thrust which gives the work its relentless power. Blitzstein sweetened and cleaned up Brecht's unsparing lyrics" and "softened the impact of Brecht's biting ferocity."
With these sentiments as the underlying guide, the Shakespeare Festival translation is far more abrasive than the off-Broadway version "The world is poor and man's a shit" goes the first-act finale. Even more significantly, the lyrics here lie on the music far less gracefully than those in the Blitzstein version, and more in the harsher manner of the original German lyrics.
This Broadway recording is respectably sung, although it's less impressive vocally than the off-Broadway version. Raul Julia is very aptly cast as Macheath, and offers a grim, intense performance. Ellen Greene is Jenny, and hers is the most arresting work on the recording. In "Pirate Jenny," Green supplies some uncharacteristic soprano tones, but otherwise belts effectively. C.K. Alexander is the excellent Mr. Peachum, Elizabeth Wilson his wife. Polly was sweetly sung by Caroline Cava, and Blair Brown was Lucy. William Duell, who appeared throughout the entire de Lys run, also appeared in this production.
Polly retained her "Barbara Song," but "Pirate Jenny" went to Jenny. Polly has no wedding-scene song at all, and Jenny/Greene replaces Mrs. Peachum in the second-act finale, probably because Wilson would not have been up to the singing required.
As the only Broadway cast recording of the show to date, Columbia's Lincoln Center Threepenny deserves a CD reissue. If I find it not remotely as pleasurable as the off-Broadway recording, that's probably because I have a sentimental attachment to the latter that can never be erased by other recordings.
A major gap in Threepenny recordings occurred when the 1989 Broadway revival went unrecorded. This was especially surprising as the production starred a major pop figure, Sting, as Macheath. But recording plans were scuttled when the production opened to bad reviews and collapsed after two months. As a result, Michael Feingold's excellent translation and the superb vocal performances of Georgia Brown, Maureen McGovern, and Kim Criswell went unpreserved.
So the next English-language cast recording is from the 1994 Donmar Warehouse, London revival. This is the venue that has also seen revivals of Cabaret, Company, Into the Woods, Pacific Overtures, and Grand Hotel, along with the first London productions of Nine and Assassins.
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd Mamma Mia!, the '94 Threepenny featured yet another new translation, the book by David MacDonald, the lyrics by Jeremy Sams the English lyrics for Amour, the book for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. According to the notes accompanying JAY's Donmar Warehouse cast recording, the production was set in "the not-too-distant future," with the theatre "bedecked with television screens, used sometimes as close-circuit security monitors, sometimes as news media." It's also interesting to note that, in a foreshadowing of the recent John Doyle stagings, "the show was cast with actor-instrumentalists."
The most surprising alteration is the removal of the "Moritat" "Mack the Knife" from the opening and from the Streetsinger, placing it instead in the second act as a solo for Jenny to belt. In other changes, Mrs. Peachum was added to the "Useless" number, which was performed a capella, and Jenny and Mr. Peachum were added to the second-act finale. Following the original, Polly retained both "Pirate Jenny" and "Barbara Song."
This is the first and only London cast recording of Three Penny to date, with such previous, major London productions as the Royal Court version, the Vanessa Redgrave/West End version, and the Tim Curry/National Theatre staging all unpreserved.
Like Blitzstein's version, Sams' translation is more of an adaptation, less faithful to the letter of the original words than the Lincoln Center text. But Sams' lyrics are even blunter than the Lincoln Center version. Of course, it should be noted that the frankness and profanity of the London and Lincoln Center versions would not have been acceptable off-Broadway in the '50s. With the update of the story, Sams' lyrics include a number of contemporary references.
The weak link in the Donmar cast is Sharon Small's Polly. Otherwise, the performances are fine, with distinctive work from Tara Hugo as Jenny, Tom Hollander as Macheath, Beverley Klein as Mrs. Peachum, and Tom Mannion as Peachum. This is a harsh, biting, and mostly effective performance.
And what with such vocal stars as Cyndi Lauper and Nellie McKay, there would appear to be every likelihood that the new Roundabout production will produce a second Broadway-cast recording, and one that will preserve yet another English translation.