The Beggar's Opera (musical)

This is about the ballad opera. For the film adaptation, see The Beggar's Opera (1953 film).

The Beggar's Opera.

The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera written by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch.

Cast

• John Hippisley - Mr. Peachum
• John Hall - Lockit
• Thomas Walker - Captain Macheath
• "Clark" (unknown) - Filch
• James Spiller - Matt of the Mint
• "Mrs Martin" (unknown) - Mrs. Peachum/Diana Trapes
• Lavinia Fenton - Polly Peachum
• "Jane Egleton" - Lucy Lockit
• "Mrs. Clarke" - Jenny Diver

Notes

A number of the cast members have not been identified by their first names and so have been listed by the name that appears in the original programme.

Plot

Peachum, a fence and thief-catcher, justifies his actions. Mrs Peachum, overhearing her husband's blacklisting of unproductive thieves, protests regarding one of them: Bob Booty (the nickname of Robert Walpole). The Peachums discover that Polly, their daughter, has secretly married Macheath, the famous highwayman, who is Peachum's principal client. Upset to learn they will no longer be able to use Polly in their business, Peachum and his wife ask how Polly will support such a husband "in Gaming, Drinking and Whoring." Nevertheless, they conclude that the match may be more profitable to the Peachums if the husband can be killed for his money. They leave to carry out this errand. However, Polly has hidden Macheath.

Macheath goes to a tavern where he is surrounded by women of dubious virtue who, despite their class, compete in displaying perfect drawing-room manners, although the subject of their conversation is their success in picking pockets and shoplifting. Macheath discovers, too late, that two of them (Jenny Diver and Suky Tawdry) have contracted with Peachum to capture him, and he becomes a prisoner in Newgate prison. The prison is run by Peachum's associate, the corrupt jailer Lockit. His daughter, Lucy Lockit, has the opportunity to scold Macheath for having agreed to marry her and then broken this promise. She tells him that to see him tortured would give her pleasure. Macheath pacifies her, but Polly arrives and claims him as her husband. Macheath tells Lucy that Polly is crazy. Lucy helps Macheath to escape by stealing her father's keys. Her father learns of Macheath's promise to marry her and worries that if Macheath is recaptured and hanged, his fortune might be subject to Peachum's claims. Lockit and Peachum discover Macheath's hiding place. They decide to split his fortune.

Meanwhile, Polly visits Lucy to try to reach an agreement, but Lucy tries to poison her. Polly narrowly avoids the poisoned drink, and the two girls find out that Macheath has been recaptured owing to the inebriated Mrs Diana Trapes. They plead with their fathers for Macheath's life. However, Macheath now finds that four more pregnant women each claim him as their husband. He declares that he is ready to be hanged. The narrator (the Beggar), notes that although in a properly moral ending Macheath and the other villains would be hanged, the audience demands a happy ending, and so Macheath is reprieved, and all are invited to a dance of celebration, to celebrate his wedding to Polly.

Musical numbers

• "An Old Woman Clothed in Gray" - Peachum
• "The bonny gray-ey'd Morn" - Filch
• "Cold and Raw" - Mrs. Peachum
• "Why is your faithful Slave disdained?" - Mrs. Peachum
• "Of All the Sinful Things We Do?" - Mrs. Peachum
• "What Shall I Do to Show How Much I Love Her?" - Polly
• "Oh, London is a Fine Town" - Mrs. Peachum
• "Grim King of the Ghosts/Can Love be Control'd by Advice?" - Polly
• "Thomas, I cannot." - Polly
• "A Soldier and a Sailor" - Peachum
• "Now ponder well, ye parents dear" - Polly
• "Pretty Polly, Say" - Macheath and Polly
• "Pray Fair One, Be Kind" - Macheath and Polly
• "O the Broom" - Macheath and Polly
• "Fill Ev'ry Glass" - Matt
• "Let Us Take the Road" - Matt and Highwaymen
• "Cotillon" - Macheath
• "All in a Misty Morning" - Jenny
• "When Once I Lay With Another Man's Wife" - Jenny
• "When First I Laid Siege to My Chloris" - Macheath
• "Courtiers, Courtiers, Think it No Harm" - Macheath
• "To a Friar Came" - Lucy
• "'Twas When the Sea Was Roaring" - Lucy
• "The Sun has loos'd his weary Teems" - Macheath

• "How Happy We Are" - Lockit
• "Of a Noble Race Was Shenkin" - Lucy and Lockit
• "London Ladies" - Macheath
• Have You Heard of a Frolicsome Ditty - Macheath
• "Cease Your Fuming" - Polly
• "Good Morrow Gossip Joan" - Lucy and Polly
• Irish Howl" - Polly
• "The Lass of Patie's Mill" - Lucy
• "South Sea Ballad" - Lucy
• "Packington's Pound" - Lockit
• "Lillibullero" - Macheath
• "Down in the North Country" - Lockit
• "A Shepherd Kept Sheep" - Diana Trapes
• "One Evening, Having Lost My Way" - Lucy
• "Now Roger, I'll Tell Thee Because Thou Art My Son" - Lucy
• "O Bessy Bell" - Polly and Lucy
• "Come Sweet Lass" - Lucy
• "The Last Time I Went o'er the Moor" - Polly and Lucy
• "Tom Tiker's My True Love" - Macheath
• "I Am a Poor Shepherd Undone" - Polly
• "Ianthe the Lovely" - Lucy
• "A Cobbler There Was" - Lockit
• "Bonny Dundee" - Macheath
• "Happy Groves" - Macheath
• "Lumps of Pudding/Finale" - Macheath and Company