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In 1928, Brecht and Weill turned to John Gay’s 18th-Century “The Beggar’s Opera” to fashion this biting commentary on bourgeois capitalism and modern morality (“Who is the greater criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?”). Marc Blitzstein’s English adaptation led to the play’s long 1956 New York run of 2707 performances at the very small Theater de Lys in Greenwich Village.