Raffish Satire Revived in ‘Beggar’s Holiday’

Duke Ellington wrote only one full score for a Broadway musical: “Beggar’s Holiday.” But after its 1946 premiere, chances to see it have been as rare as holidays for beggars.

That’s probably reason enough for Ellington fans and for followers of the permutations of the original source material, John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera,” to venture to the Laurel Theatre in Ventura.

Rubicon Theatre Company is presenting 11 semi-staged performances of a new version of the show, featuring a rewrite of John Latouche’s book and lyrics by “Man of La Mancha” librettist Dale Wasserman, who worked on the original “Beggar’s Holiday” as a young assistant producer.

Directed by James O’Neil, the actors carry scripts in what is billed as “a concert reading.” But they also move around the stage and engage in bare-bones choreography. A narrator (Jim Alexander) reads the stage directions. The set and lighting have been adapted from the last occupant of the stage, “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.” The uncredited costumes are hardly lavish but are more character-specific than mere street clothes.

A backstage band has only three players--musical director Kevin Toney on keyboards, bass player Ida Bodin and drummer Tony Lewis--but it treats Ellington’s lush and varied score with care.

The score begins with a soulful meditation on ambivalence, “In Between,” sung by a contemporary Beggar (Carl Anderson). Then he takes us into his own imaginary world, in which he plays the gangster MacHeath in a city in the American South.

The story’s ingredients are similar to those of the 1728 original and its most famous variant, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera.” MacHeath is secretly married to young Polly Peachum (Sara Mann), while playing around with the madam Miss Jenny (Alaina Reed Hall). Polly’s disreputable parents (Paul Ainsley and Sharon McNight) and Jenny all plot to turn over MacHeath to the police captain (Louis Tucker), but the captain’s daughter, Lucy Lockit (Cheryl Carter), falls for the imprisoned MacHeath and facilitates his temporary escape.

The 1946 original had such problems in the second act that the final 20 minutes “were virtually improvised” on opening night, director John Houseman recalled in his memoir. The current version also has an extremely unfinished quality. The concluding plot developments are rushed through and barely staged at all. The upbeat grand finale of both acts, “Tomorrow Mountain,” hardly seems justified by the story. Anderson’s performance is much more tentative in the second act.

Yet a spirit of raffish satire remains alive and well. Neophyte criminal Sneaky Pete (Danny Bolero) tells us why “I Wanna Be Bad” with flair. The Peachums and their favorite cop compare life to a particularly vicious football game in “The Scrimmage of Life.” Lawyers take it on the chin, in 3/4 time, in “Tooth and Claw.” Miss Jenny scornfully mocks MacHeath’s suggestion that they sire a son in “Lullaby for Junior.”

Although not especially topical, the script includes several obviously recent references. The blind beggar says the government considers him “optically challenged.”

A few of the less satiric songs are easily detachable for use outside the show, such as the smoothly jazzy “Take Love Easy” and the introspective “Brown Penny.”

Here’s hoping that “Beggar’s Holiday” returns in a properly finished form.

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“Beggar’s Holiday,” Laurel Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $28-$38. (805) 667-2900. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.