Change or Die
Posted by Greg Hardigan on 9/23/2008“Skillfully layered”
“Volcanic”
“Terrific”
“Bawdy, full-throated”
These are reviews that most productions would kill to get. All have been used to describe Kurt Ehrmann’s portrayal of J.J. Peachum in our Threepenny Opera. And they are dead-on.
He has also managed to be called a “blustery autocrat” and an “amoral moralist” in strictly complimentary tones, which is quite a feat. I think the one review I might disagree with called him a “dysfunctional parent”. Kurt has managed to make Peachum’s raw, nasty edges deeply understandable. This is a man in desperate circumstances clawing and slashing to keep his family alive. I might call him “terrifyingly functional”.
Since mid-July, he has been our Peachum. So it is with great sadness that we all said goodbye to him yesterday evening. He is leaving the show, in a pre-planned move, to open Edward II at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Luckily, the man taking his place is Michael Pacas, the most prepared and committed understudy I have ever seen. The man will rock this part. Rock it, I say. Just watch him.
In fact, Kurt’s exit and Michael’s entry points out exactly what is beautiful about theater: the fleeting, dangerous, thrilling unrepeatability of it all. Each performance is a living, breathing covenant between the actors and the audience that has its own unique energy and pulse. That guy in the second row with the crazy laugh, the old couple snoring…the new actor stepping into a major role…these things combine to forge the show each night.
And no matter how breathtaking or disastrous or indifferent it is, that show dies at curtain call. It can no more be repeated than your Thursday at the office.
That’s theater. That’s life. And all that is living must change or die.
So change it is. Farewell Kurt, hello Michael.
Bring it on.