The Band's Visit actors Katrina Lenk and George Abud will reunite for a new version of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. Abud will star as Macheath, as well as adapt and direct the production, which will be called 3Penny Opera. It will run Off-Broadway January 15-25, 2026 at Theatre at St. Jean's, produced by Off-Brand Opera. 

The new adaptation, according to the official synopsis, "sets Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s 3penny Opera in present day New York City against the backdrop of a Mayoral Inauguration. Themes of immigration abuse and class warfare burn beneath a vaudevillian veneer of riotous Brechtian comedy."

Tony winner Lenk will play Pirate Jenny, Tony nominee Barbara Walsh (Falsettos) will play Polly Peachum, Paula Gaudier (The Beautiful Lady) will play Pam/Young Polly, Mahira Kakkar (Manifest) will play Tiger Brown, and Aline Salloum (A People’s Guide To History) will play Mrs. Peachum. 

Jake Landau will provide new orchestrations and additional lyrics for the production. Choreography will be by Brianna Mercado, and costume design by Raul Luna. Additional creative team members and casting will be announced at a later date.

Threepenny Opera, originally written as a social satire, follows the amoral criminal Macheath, who marries the innocent Polly Peachum—much to the anger of her father, King of the Beggars Mr. Peachum, who tries to have Macheath hanged. The opera was first performed in German in 1928. The German-language version of Threepenny Opera is now in the public domain, allowing anyone to translate it into English without paying royalties.

Threepenny Opera first ran in New York in English in 1933 on Broadway. The 1956 New York revival earned Weill's wife, Lotte Lenya, a Tony Award for playing Jenny (despite the show being Off-Broadway). Other notable New York revivals included the 1989 Broadway revival with musician Sting as Macheath and the 2006 Broadway revival with Alan Cumming as Macheath and Cyndi Lauper as Jenny. 

The song "Mack the Knife" from Threepenny Opera has become a jazz standard, thanks to singer Bobby Darin (whose life is currently dramatized in the Broadway musical Just in Time). 

In addition, for Off-Brand Opera, Abud will direct the new play Fanny: A Fantasy in G by Tim McGillicuddy, about the real-life overlooked female composer Fanny Mendelssohn. It will run March 26–April 19, 2026.

Visit OffBrandOpera.org.