Off-Brand Opera premieres a new version of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera at Theatre at St. Jean's beginning January 15. George Abud (The Band's Visit) has adapted and is directing the production—now titled 3Penny Opera—along with starring as Macheath. Performances continue through January 25.

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."

Abud is reuniting with his former Broadway The Band's Visit co-star, Tony winner Katrina Lenk, who's starring as Pirate Jenny, sharing the stage with Tony nominee Barbara Walsh (Falsettos) as Polly Peachum, Paula Gaudier (The Beautiful Lady) as Pam/Young Polly, Mahira Kakkar (Manifest) as Tiger Brown, Aline Salloum (A People’s Guide To History) as Mrs. Peachum, Berit Palma as Stuffy Stevie, Alexis Papaleo as Tummy Tommy, Joseph Pyfferoen as Peachum, Aline Salloum as Mrs. Peachum, and Nicola Vazquez as Krusti Kristi.

Jake Landau has provided new orchestrations and additional lyrics for the production. Choreography is by Brianna Mercado, set design by Henry Pedersen, costume design by Raul Luna, and lighting design by Dan Drew. Minhui Lee is music directing.

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.

The work 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).

Visit OffBrandOpera.org.