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Wallace Shawn's Threepenny Opera Broadway-Bound for Next Season
By Ernio Hernandez
25 Jan 2005
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Wallace Shawn
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The forthcoming Wallace Shawn adaptation of The Threepenny Opera will see the Broadway stage next season, according to the attached director Scott Elliott.
"Projects take a long time to develop properly," Elliott — who is currently preparing for the Off-Broadway opening of his revival of Hurlyburly — told Playbill.com. "One thing I don't like doing is rushing because it never pays off. We're taking our time."
Elliott recently workshopped the Roundabout Theatre Company commission with a cast starring Edie Falco, Christine Baranski and the scribe Shawn. "We did a workshop of it. And we're going to do it next season, like around this time next year."
Shawn (Aunt Dan and Lemon) will translate and adapt the original German book and lyrics of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's classic musical. Set in London in the 1800s, the The Threepenny Opera concerns a notorious bandit who marries a girl, much to the chagrin of her father. The peeved patriarch does everything in his power to imprison his son-in-law in this political and social satire.
Roundabout announced the work in June 2003 for the 2004-2005 season, but later bumped it from the lineup. The Brecht-Weill work last saw the Broadway stage in 1989 as 3 Penny Opera starring Sting.
Actor-playwright Shawn stars opposite Ethan Hawke in the Elliott's new staging of David Rabe's Hurylyburly which also stars Bobby Cannavale, Josh Hamilton, Catherine Kellner and Parker Posey. He also appeared in the recent New York Theatre Workshop reading of David Hare's Stuff Happens as United Nations inspector Hans Blix. He is known for his turns in the films "My Dinner With Andre," "The Princess Bride" and as the voice of Rex in the "Toy Story" movies.
As a playwright, Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon was revived by The New Group last season. His other works include Marie and Bruce — his screen adaptation of which starring Matthew Broderick debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival — and The Designated Mourner, which was staged in New York in 2000 with Shawn and Larry Pine in a cast directed by Andre Gregory.
Founding Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's The New Group, Elliott directed Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon for the company as well as the 2001 Broadway revival of The Women for Roundabout. Other credits include Three Sisters, Present Laughter, Kiki & Herb: A Coup de Theatre, The Women of Lockerbie, Comedians and Smelling a Rat. A one-time performer, he appeared on Broadway in Les Miserables and Ain't Broadway Grand.
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