The Threepenny Opera/YMMV

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  • Adaptation Displacement: Only aficionados of Augustan English drama would recognize the source material. Though this might have been different when the opera came out in 1928 Berlin, because The Beggars Opera had just seen a revival there.
  • Covered Up: Bobby Darin's rendition of "Mack the Knife".
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Seeräuber Jenny. ESPECIALLY when sung by Lotte Lenya.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Macheath is the one character most audiences seem to like best, even though he is intended as a despicable villain.
  • Older Than They Think: Several of Macheath's songs are taken from the French renaissance poet (and professional criminal) Francois Villon. It works in the other direction, too: A lot of people are more likely to connect the "Moritat" with Bobby Darrin or Louis Armstrong than Bertolt Brecht.
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