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4 comments about The Beggar's Opera.

1. Absolutely deplorable people doing rather hardhearted things. Loved it! Couldn't stop reading it once I had scanned the first couple of lines. What's not to love about a cast of 18th century rogues and lowlifes? I just wish I could see this actually performed-- seems like it'd be extremely entertaining to watch.



2. From its first performance, January 29, 1728, The Beggar's Opera was an absolute success. In that period a box office hit might be continued for four or five nights. Remarkably, The Beggar's Opera ran sixty-two nights in London, and was produced nearly every year thereafter to 1886. Its popularity quickly spread to Wales and Scotland, France and Germany, and even to the New England colonies (and became a favorite of George Washington).
   
   A London revival in 1920 ran 1,463 performances. A Beggar's Opera Club had membership limited to those that had seen at least 40 performances. Bertholt Brecht's twentieth century version, Three Penny Opera, was immensely successful too. A jazzy rendition of one of Brecht's songs, Mack the Knife, became Number One on the Hit Parade in the early 1960s.
   
   John Gay's innovative musical appealed to the masses with its rollicking, rowdy, English lyrics overlain on old, sentimental melodies. Formal, highly structured, Italian opera was shoved aside by this novel musical form.
   
   The cast was equally original, being comprised of cutthroats, pickpockets, thieves, streetwalkers, highwaymen, and a corrupt jailer. Polly Peachum, the sweet, trusting daughter of the roguish Peachum, was the only honest character in the play. Miss Lavina Fenton, perhaps the best theatrical singer of her day, became immensely popular for her role as Polly and at end of the run - the sixty-two performances - she married the Duke of Bolton and retired from acting.
   
   The audience was quick to associate Newgate Prison with Whitehall; the deceitful, avaricious Peachum (Polly's father) with Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister; Macheath's band of rogues (Jemmy Twitcher, Crook-Fingered Jack, Nimming Ned, etc.) with aristocratic courtiers, and Macheath's women of the streets (Mrs. Coaxer, Dolly Trull, Mrs. Vixen, Molly Brazen, etc.) with ladies of high society.
   
   This short three-act play has some forty-five scenes, almost all with musical interludes. Gay holds this myriad of scenes together through nearly continuous action, more akin to a modern film than to the conventional eighteenth century play.
   
   The Penguin Classics edition (titled The Beggar's Opera, as might be expected), edited by Brian Loughrey and T. O. Treadwell, is quite good and not difficult to find.
   
   Another good choice (and my favorite) is The Beggar's Opera published by Barron's Educational Series, edited by Benjamin Griffith, and illustrated by Keogh with full page ink-line drawings of the key characters. The lengthy, three part introduction - the playwright, the play, and the staging - is quite helpful. The initial musical notes are presented along with the lyrics.
   
   The Beggar's Opera, Regents Restoration Drama Series, Nebraska University Press, 1969 may be more suitable for English majors as it offers a scholarly introduction by Edgar V. Roberts. An extensive appendix, some 140 pages, is a compilation of the music of The Beggar's Opera with keyboard accompaniments, edited by Edward Smith.
   
   The Beggar's Opera and Companion Pieces, Crofts Classics, 1966, edited by C. F. Burgess is particularly valuable - and somewhat unique - for including Gay's enjoyable poem Trivia (subtitled The Art of Walking the Streets of London), other poems (Newgate's Garland, 'Twas When the Seas Were Roaring, Sweet William's Farewell, Molly Mog, An Epistle to a Lady, and The Hare and Many Friends), and extracts from various letters. A possible drawback may be the absence of musical scores in the text, although the lyrics are embedded within the play itself.



3. Life is a jest; and all things show it, I thought so once; but now I know it. - John Gay's epitaph As we sit here, nearly 300 years removed from the debut of The Beggar's Opera, it's hard to recapture the effect that it had on the England of 1728. So look at it this way, John Gay was the Sex Pistols of his day and The Beggar's Opera hit London like Never Mind the Bollocks....

   Since Italian opera had first come to London in 1705, it had dominated the British stage. Replete with ornate sets, elaborate costumes, unintelligible plots and imported sopranos and castrati, it was less art than event. Audiences attended to share in the spectacle, as chariots swooped through the air & romantic tales unfolded on stage. Into this artificial world, Gay unleashed an opera about the scum of London society, set in taverns and thieves' dens. He tells the story of Peachum, a fence with a lucrative sideline in informing on fellow criminals. His daughter Polly has secretly married MacHeath, a highwayman. Now Peachum and his "wife" fear that MacHeath will inform on them & inherit their loot when they are hanged. After berating Polly for marrying, & not having sense enough to live out of wedlock, they decide to turn MacHeath in, before he can turn them in. As Peachum prepares his daughter for this turn of events he tells her: "The comfortable estate of widowhood, is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits. Where is the woman who would scruple to be a wife, if she had it in her power to be a widow whenever she pleased?" However, to the Peachum's disgust, Polly is actually in love with MacHeath and so, to her great surprise, are several other women, including Lucy Lockit who helps him to escape from prison. So, the stage is set for a madcap farce. Mix in a satiric look at the corrupt administration of justice, some political jabs at the political master of the day, Sir Robert Walpole and songs like the following:

   A fox may steal your hens, sir A whore your health and pence, sir, Your daughter rob your chest, sir Your wife may steal your rest, sir, A thief your goods and plate. But this is all but picking, With rest, pence, chest and chicken; It ever was decreed, sir, If lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir, He steals your whole estate.

   and you've got Gay's recipe for what quickly became the most popular play of the 18th Century, fathering myriad imitations including Brecht's Threepenny Opera. A delicious romp. GRADE: A




4. The Beggar's Opera by John Gay is an artful yet honest representation of London in the early 1700s. As the Editor's introduction notes, it is a political satire that brings to life the actions of such notorious figures as Jonathan Wild and Robert Walpole. In the Beggar's introduction the reader is made aware of the author's intent to mock the recent craze of the Italian Opera, which is considered by Gay to be thouroughly "unnatural." Immediately after that we are exposed to the corruption of a city offical, Peachum (whose name means "to inform against a fellow criminal"), as he is choosing which criminals should live, as they are still profitable, and who should not, as they have turned honest. Peachum's character of both an arch-criminal and law man is interesting enough in his daily dealings; add to that his daughter's recent marriage to a highwayman (who the father then plots to send to the gallows). Not to mention what happens when the highwayman runs into an old aquaintance of his, who visibly shows his earlier affection, and you have what makes to be a highly entertaining, emotional, and educational story of 18th century London. The dialogue is well written, and the only problem a modern reader might have is the operatic aspect. I suspect that the mockery of the opera is not felt as much when read but rather when performed. Note to reader: it makes it much easier to understand if you read the introduction. There you will find instances of "real" London that the playwrite is satirizing. For all lovers of period English pieces who enjoy a cynical wit.

1 comments about Jesus Hopped the "A" Train.

1. I had heard of the writer's other play, "Our Lady of 121st Street," but I decided to pick up this one too, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. "Jesus Hopped the A Train" is a powerful play about the meaning of faith and some of the hypocrisy in people who use organized religion (or misuse it) for their own earthly goals. But the story is so much more than that. The character of Angel is wonderful, and as an actor myself I hope to get the chance to play him on stage while I'm young enough to do it. Stephen Adly Guirgis has a great talent for believable dialogue and unique characterization. Some have criticized his alleged weak plotting, but I think the overall pluses in his tales compensate for any negatives. Read his plays and judge for yourself.

4 comments about The Gardener's Son.

1. I agree that Cormac McCarthy is America's greatest living author. I have now read all of his works, The Gardener's Son being the last one read. It didn't disappoint me either as none of his books have. He is truely a literary genius and I would love to know him personally.



2. I give it 2.5 but I really didn't think there was much of a story here. If you're an admirer and want to read his works, this is an earlier example. Easy, undemanding read.



3. I agree with the other reviewer who says that you should read McCarthy's books first; that's a must. I found this screenplay interesting, but a bit disappointing in places. Where I detected McCarthy's voice most was in the stage directions and monologues, and a few bits of the dialogue. The power the sysnopses mention was a bit lost on me; I actually found this work quite cryptic, and was puzzled by the flap copy's assertion that the accident was "rumored to have been caused by James Gregg"--I couldn't find even a hint of that. Maybe I missed it?

   In any case, a good little snippet. Now I have to go back to the novels...




4. Having read everything else by Cormac McCarthy, I turned to _The Gardener's Son_ and was not disappointed. It has often been said but bears repeating that McCarthy is America's greatest living author, and I recommend his novels to anyone who enjoys beautiful writing. But I wouldn't suggest this screenplay unless, like me, you're already addicted to McCarthy and are looking for another "fix". It's a short work, fairly expensive for its brief length, and the plot is so sparse that you really have to be a fan of his style to feel as though you've benefitted from reading it. I hesitate to give less than five stars to anything by Cormac McCarthy, but this screenplay is essentially too little of a great thing to merit the unqualified recommendation that I give to all his other books.

2 comments about The Mediaeval Stage (Dover Books on Literature and Drama).

1. Few have the gift for presenting color to 'the thing' observed as E.K. does! Buy it, never come out of it.



2. This book is a wonderfully detailed record of theatre as it developed form the early liturgical tropes into the medieval theatre that precursered the Elizabethan that we know so well.
   
   An excelent resource for anyone wishing to study the origins of english theatre. Highly recommended.