Performers directly confronted audience members for their complicity in poverty at Fordham Theatre’s Mainstage production of “Three Penny Opera.”
Before the (metaphorical) curtain raised, “Three Penny Opera” subverted theatre conventions. Players warmed up on and in front of the stage as attendees entered the auditorium, sometimes greeting friends as they took their seats. The audience recognized the cast as their peers before seeing them in character, unsettling the suspension of disbelief typical to theatre performances.
What followed was a winking tale of crime, lust and capitalist exploitation in Victorian London complete with musical numbers and a tango and apache dance fusion, adapted from Bertolt Brecht’s 1928 original “play with music.”
The play follows infamous criminal Macheath, or “Mack the Knife,” (Evan Woodfill, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’27) as he is married, chased, betrayed, fought over, freed, betrayed again, made to grovel and finally sentenced to death. A deadpan street singer (Isabella Conklin, FCLC ’26) in pastel pink announced songs and set each scene at the front of stage.
Elements that are strictly separated in traditional theatre productions were blurred, deliberately calling attention to the show’s artifice. The stage had no back curtain, so the audience could see costume racks, lights and performers off-stage. Some actors joined the onstage band when not performing in a scene and some crew members participated in jokes.
George Drance, S.J., a current artist-in-residence at Fordham University and an artistic director for the Magis Theatre Company, directed Fordham’s production of the play. The transgression of theatre conventions was faithful to Brecht’s style, which encouraged crowds to look past fictitious elements and engage with his plays’ radical political messages.
Writing in 1928, Brecht intended to provoke class struggle by laying bare the abuses of capitalism for a working-class German audience.
Performers sang about the desperation of the poor under capitalism, the hunger of the masses and vicious revenge fantasies. Their confrontations with exploitation were laid bare for the audience explicitly. Standing before the gallows, Mack the Knife asked, “what’s robbing a bank to bailing one out?”
Writing in 1928, Brecht intended to provoke class struggle by laying bare the abuses of capitalism for a working-class German audience. In “Three Penny Opera,” characters challenge the crowd’s silent cruelty towards the impoverished. Rich and poor alike are shown to be corrupted by the workings of capitalism.
In her final appearance on the university stage, Riley Halpern, FCLC ’25, a theatre major with an acting concentration, delivered a standout performance as Polly, Mack’s bride. Halpern said the play showcased her ability as a multihyphenate artist and the skills she’s honed in her time at Fordham.
“I would say it really feels like a culmination of all the work that I’ve done here,” Halpern said. “I used to consider myself a singer first, and now, after being in this program, I’m more confident about my acting, but it was just such a joy to get to combine that passion for singing and music and get to act.”
Halpern’s tremendous vocal range elevated the show to a professional level. She held the audience’s attention for the entirety of her performance, rendering Polly in spectacular fashion as either a naive lovelorn girl or a vengeful woman scorned.
As the leading man, Woodfill brought a killing comedic attitude and charm to his character. He stalked across the stage and delighted the crowd with a sniveling grin. His philandering charm especially aided in portraying Mack’s overlapping relationships with Polly, Lucy Brown (Amanda Sofia Rodriguez, FCLC ’26) and Chief of Police Jackie Tiger Brown’s (Rohde Costello, FCLC ’27) hilarious one-sided homoerotic relationship with him.
The mounting tension between Costello’s Chief Brown and Woodfill’s Mack tacked on absurdity to the already frenzied nature of the comedy. Chief Brown’s poorly veiled obsession with Mack served as a fitting foil to Polly and Lucy’s public duel for Mack’s affections. “Three Penny Opera” turned a glaring spotlight onto the macho-capitalism governing Brecht’s London in displaying the foolishness of its leading men.
Brown and Mack’s intimacy draws a parallel between the violence of organized crime and that of law enforcement. The two met as soldiers in British India and reveled in stories of colonial suppression. Their corrupt friendship blooms in a mockery of the rule of law.
Andrew Shapiro, FCLC ’25 (J.J. Peachum and saxophone), said that the interactive nature of the play was one of the biggest challenges that the ensemble had to face.
“One of the things that I wanted to bring forward was this complete ‘I’m a human, and you’re a human, and we’re all here together,’” Shapiro said.
Throughout the play, the cast used the physical extent of the theater, and the stage seemed to expand beyond its borders. Performers sat in the aisles to watch scenes unfold and paraded around the floor in front of the stage. Glances into the crowd were met with choruses of laughs.
Shapiro said he was happy to work with Brecht’s unique approach to theatre, and said that he expected to carry what he learned on “Three Penny Opera” after he graduates.
“Different performances affect your experience and your performance later on in your career. We’re trained in Meisner and Chekhov and Uta Hagen and everything, and Brecht is no different because he has such a distinct style,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro, saxophone in hand, interrupted the climax of the play in the moment before Mack the Knife’s execution with a direct address to the audience.
“Since no one’s held accountable in 2025, and you’re the ones we can’t risk offending, we substitute instead a different ending. Because this is art, not life. Let justice give way for humanity. So now, to stop our story in its course, enter the royal official on his horse,” Shapiro said.
The “deus ex machina” of the royal official (Costello) atop a stick horse was not actually added for the Mainstage production, but was the original ending in Brecht’s script. By deceiving the audience — perhaps the show’s only dishonest moment — the themes of “Three Penny Opera” are brought into the audience’s world. In light of the Trump administration and Mayor Eric Adams, Mack the Knife’s triumphant cheers of “I’m pardoned! I’m pardoned!” echo almost a century later.
“Three Penny Opera” held three performances from Feb. 27 through March 1, and there will be three more chances to see the show from March 6 until March 8.
Dael Ki contributed additional reporting to this story.
