What is your role in this production? I am the Music Director. This involves coaching all the singers as well as rehearsing musicians. For this show I am leading a 4-piece group from the piano. What is your background in theatre? I've been involved in musical theatre for about 25 years, starting out as a performer, and have been an accompanist, conductor and music director for about 20 years. The shows I have done with Walterdale include The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Fantasticks, and A Little Night Music. I am a classically trained musician, and that training is coming in very handy on this show!
What attracted you to this show? I've loved the music from The Threepenny Opera for years. Kurt Weill is a brilliant composer who writes complex and challenging music. I've wanted to do the show for a long time and Walterdale Theatre as a venue is an ideal space for this piece. So, when the chance to do the show with Curtis came along, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
What are the challenges in doing a show like Threepenny? The show is very complex musically. It's a unique hybrid - part opera, part classical art song, and part jazz. It is full of unusual harmonies and melodies that don't quite go where the ear expects. Add to that lyrics that aren't the usual sugar-coated sentimental stuff you hear in musicals and it is a challenge for all involved! For me it is a welcome challenge though, and I am relishing every moment! One of the specific challenges of this show is The Ballad of Mack the Knife. The song has become a standard for jazz singers and crooners, yet it's style in the context of the show is very different. It has been a challenge to keep the song true to Weill's purpose, and not let it sound like Ella Fitzgerald or Michale Buble. I think audiences will be pleasantly surprised to hear it in its original incarnation.
What has made the experience fun for you? One of the great joys for me is working with new people. Many Directors and Music Directors get stuck in the rut of always casting the same people, and this is ultimately very limiting artistically. While there are a couple of cast members whom I've known and worked with for years, more than half the cast are brand new collaborators for me, and this makes for an exciting and stimulating process.
The Threepenny Opera has been an amazing journey so far. We have a cast of fearless performers who are willing to do anything we throw at them (there have been a few surprises!). The creative team is second to none in vision and enthusiasm and the musicians are all Walterdale veterans who are as enthusiastic as I am about the music. All of these talented individuals are together creating a world very different from our own. I can hardly wait to share this world with the audience!
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