Troupe embraces spirit of ‘Happy End’

In 1929, after the landmark “Threepenny Opera,” Berlin producer Ernst-Josef Aufricht asked Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill for a follow-up: “Happy End.” This “comic melodrama with songs” about a criminal barkeep and a Salvation Army lassie in 1919 Chicago echoes “Major Barbara” and presages “Guys and Dolls.”

Brecht’s disdain for the commercial endeavor wreaked havoc at rehearsals. On opening night, his actress wife, Helene Weigel, capped collaborator Elizabeth Hauptmann’s makeshift Act 3 with Marxist polemic. The audience rebelled, “Happy End” flopped and Brecht banned it from his published works.

Over the decades, Weill’s sublime music resisted obscurity, producing standards in “The Bilbao Song,” “The Sailors’ Tango” and “Surabaya Johnny.” Michael Feingold’s lauded 1972 adaptation for Yale Rep led to the 1977 Broadway staging with Christopher Lloyd and Meryl Streep. In 1985, “Happy End” inaugurated Pacific Resident Theatre. As its 20th anniversary approaches, the company revisits the show, with triumphant results.

Director Dan Bonnell sustains a sure touch, from the picket-line prologue, “Hosanna Rockefeller,” to the humanitarian finale. His sterling forces embrace the social satire and music-hall moxie. As antihero Bill Cracker, virile Timothy V. Murphy enjoys dangerous chemistry with Lesley Fera’s marvelous Lillian Holiday.

Christopher Shaw inhales the period stereotypes of Dr. Nakamura, a role originated by Peter Lorre. Martha Hackett lends tongue-in-cheek menace to the Fly (Weigel’s part). Underworld cronies William Lithgow, Andrew Parks, Tassos Pappas, Rebecca Crandall and Barry Kramer carouse away with the house.

Sarah Brooke, Matthew Elkins, Amy Huntington, Tracie Lockwood and Norman Scott make delicious missionaries. Max Wright’s narrator, Travis Terry’s cop and Andrew LaFebre’s puppet-assisted beggars complete a first-rate troupe.

Sets by Charles Erven and Travis Gale Lewis, sound by Jeff Henry and lighting by Jeremy Pivnick merge seedy tavern, Canal Street mission and Weimar limbo. Costume designer Audrey Eisner gives the gang plastic hair or features, one of many wry notions.

Purists may miss Weill’s charts, but pianist Dean Mora lands their essence with virtuosity, and musical director Carolyn Mignini produces authentic, abrupt Sprechstimme. At times, such definitive assurance makes this revival seem, to quote “Bilbao Song,” fantastic, beyond belief.

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‘Happy End’

Where: Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays

Ends: March 27

Price: $22 to $27.50

Contact: (310) 822-8392

Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes