A musical where the only sin is poverty—and capitalism gets the electric chair.
Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialization of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money
Score
Weill's jazz-drenched dissonance still sounds dangerous ninety years later.
Direction
Roussillon balances Brecht's theatrical distance with genuine operatic power.
Production
The casino-as-dystopia set design is gorgeously repulsive.
Director
François Roussillon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Weill and Brecht wrote this as the Nazis rose; the original 1930 Leipzig premiere was shut down by authorities who recognized themselves in the satire.
The 'Alabama Song' became a Doors hit in 1967—Jim Morrison's slurred, drugged version completely inverting Brecht's critique of American consumerism into American consumerism itself. Brecht would have hated it, which is perfect.
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