Cumming, Falco and McKay to Star in Threepenny Opera at Studio 54

Alan Cumming, Edie Falco and Nellie McKay will star in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of The Threepenny Opera. The revival, directed by Scott Elliott, is scheduled to open at Studio 54 in April 2006, according to a production spokesperson.

"I'm really excited about doing The Threepenny Opera," Cumming told Broadway.com. "We did a two week workshop at the end of last year and it was great to get the chance to explore Wallace Shawn's new adaptation and for me to start feeling out Macheath. I can't wait to get started on this amazing piece and also to be part of the Broadway community again--all that and I'll be back at my old stomping ground Studio 54! It's the perfect play and part and place and people!"

Cumming got his start on the London stage, making his debut in 1988's The Conquest of the South Pole and going on to receive great acclaim for Accidental Death of an Anarchist for which he also won an Olivier Award and La Bete. After playing the title role in Hamlet at the Donmar Warehouse, he starred in Sam Mendes' acclaimed staging of Cabaret, giving a dark spin to the role of the Emcee. Cumming recreated his work in Cabaret on Broadway in 1998 first at the Henry Miller Theatre and later Studio 54, winning a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Theatre World Award for his performance. He returned to the Broadway stage in 2001, playing Otto in Noel Coward's Design for Living. Off-Broadway, he was seen in Elle, the inaugural and only production for his theater company The Art Party. Cumming has found great success in Hollywood since Cabaret. He co-wrote and co-directed the film The Anniversary Party and has been featured in dozens of films including Circle of Friends, GoldenEye, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Spice World, Eyes Wide Shut, Titus, Spy Kids, Josie and the Pussycats, Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, Nicholas Nickleby, X-Men 2, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and the current Son of the Mask. He recently launched his own cologne line, Cumming.

Falco has won three Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes for her performance as Carmela Soprano in The Sopranos. She made her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning play Side Man, which she also appeared in off-Broadway and in London earning a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk nomination for her performance in the play. Falco returned to the Great White Way in 2002, headlining the two-hander, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune with Stanley Tucci. Earlier this season she headlined 'night, Mother with Brenda Blethyn. In addition to Side Man, she has appeared off-Broadway in Shooting Gallery, The Way and A Fabulous Beast.

Born in London, but a New York resident since a young age, McKay is known as a singer, not an actress. She began performing at clubs around Manhattan at a young age and in 2003 signed with Columbia/Sony. Her debut album, Get Away from Me, was released in February 2004. It offers a jazz-influenced take on hard-edged pop.

Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's most popular collaboration, The Threepenny Opera is based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. The show centers on Macheath Cumming, a vicious character. In the tuner, Macheath, or Mack the Knife as he is known, he marries the impressionable an innocent Polly Peachum McKay, much to the displeasure of her father, Jonathan Peachum. Through his whole marriage, and a series of arrests, he keeps a strong relationship with his mistress, Pirate Jenny Falco.

The Roundabout has commissioned Wallace Shawn who is currently appearing in Elliott's off-Broadway revival of Hurlyburly to translate and adapt the original German book and lyrics for the production.