The University of Oklahoma will present the only U.S. staging this season of “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.”

The production is set to go up from March 6 – 9, 2025 at the Reynolds Performing Arts Center on the OU-Norman Campus. It will feature over 100 OU students, including 31 cast members, 40 orchestra musicians, and crew members, student designers, and production workers. The work will be directed by Nicole Kenley-Miller who wants to focus on the opera’s exploration of greed and self-interest. As such, she will update the work to the 1980s.

“The story centers on a man named Jimmy who arrives in this city built on hedonism and pleasure. He spends all his money, runs up a bar tab and ends up on trial. Ultimately, he is sentenced to death – not for any serious crime, but simply for being unable to pay his debts. Brecht used this extreme scenario to make a powerful point: when a society prioritizes profit over people, it ultimately collapses in on itself,” Kenley-Miller said in an official press release. ““I want people to come and experience the show, to enjoy the music and the spectacle, but also to engage with its deeper message,” Kenley-Miller said. “Brecht called his approach ‘alienation theater’ – his goal was to make audiences think, not just sit back and be entertained. ‘Mahagonny’ does that in a way that is both captivating and challenging.”

Headlining the production will be Matt Corcoran as Jimmy. He is joined by Carol Jarrett and Kate Snowden. Jonathan Shames, D.M.A., is the artistic director and conductor of OU Opera and will lead the musical direction for this production.

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