Beg, Borrow, and Steal—Genesis
The genesis of this show came to me while I was
singing on a cruise ship on the Mediterranean
for six months during the winter season. I had
taken a handful of music with me to learn while
locked up in my cabin, bobbing away on the turbulent
seas. One of the musical theatre anthologies I
had contained a song by Duke Ellington
called Maybe I Should Change
My Ways from The Beggar’s
Holiday. The tiny blurb in the book mentioned
that it was Duke Ellington’s Broadway/Jazz
version of The Beggar’s
Opera. I found this quite intriguing. I
knew that Kurt Weill had done his own version,
as had Benjamin Britten, but I found it quite
interesting that Ellington has also done a version.
I learned the song and found that I quite liked
it. Once back on dry land, I coached the song
with Heather Weir
and Richard Link,
both of whom were surprised and intrigued as well
by the idea of Duke Ellington and his Beggar’s
Holiday.
I suggested we do a cabaret at London’s
The Arts Club and call it Weill
and Reprehensible: Whores, Highwaymen, Rogues
& Wenches, and that we use some of
the music from Ellington’s show as well
as some of the various other versions of The
Beggar’s Opera. They both thought
it was a good idea and were keen to get on board.
Wide influence
We began to research music suitable for the show.
We all began to discover that the influence of
The Beggar’s Opera
went far beyond any of our knowledge. We began
to unearth all kinds of interesting connections
between John Gay’s piece of 1728 and its
hold on composers, playwrights and performers
throughout the centuries. We grew fascinated by
the influence of this one work.
I can think of few other playwrights, other than
Shakespeare, whose work has so often been interpreted
and reinterpreted inspiriring many of the great
musical minds of the 20th century to write music
inspired by John Gay’s piece. It truly is
a seminal work of the music theatre.
We soon discovered there was more than enough
material around The Beggar’s
Opera to programme an entire show around
it. Thus Portraits of a Beggar
was first premiered at The Arts Club, London,
on 3 November 2006. We have reworked the piece,
adding a director, Jamie Hinde, and making it
more theatrical, and are premiering Beg,
Borrow and Steal at the International Stage,
Song and Screen Conference at The University of
Leeds on 24 March 2007. Our future plans are to
develop a full length, two-act piece based on
this material.
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