For most of the last 20 years, Army Community Theatre has been known for staging classic G-rated Broadway musicals on minimal production budgets.

ACT's longtime producer-director Vanita Rae Smith was allowed to stage some edgier and more contemporary fare in recent years, but director Brett Harwood's current production of the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill musical, “;Threepenny Opera,”; brings the venerable theater group into an exciting new era.

The show, “;3PO”; for short, was written by Brecht and composer Weill for the German stage in 1928. A hit in Germany, it was translated into English and did well on Broadway in 1932, but Brecht's tale of amoral criminals preying on each other in 19th-century London is challenging fare for contemporary audiences. It's a challenge that the local theater audience should accept.

Harwood plays up the darkness. Several key numbers are performed with the soloists lit only from below—as if perhaps from hell. He also makes imaginative use of video clips to set the mood for or add impact to the actors' performance: When Macheath speaks from the gallows, for instance, it appears that cameras are in the crowd capturing reaction to his words.

Larry Paxton (Macheath) and John Hunt (Mr. Peacham) are well matched as the arch criminal and his nemesis. Both are accomplished actors with a great grasp of character and strong voices to match. Both had problems with their microphones on opening night, but even without amplification their voices could be heard loud and clear.

Harwood's decision to put musical director Lina Doo and her musicians onstage behind the actors adds to the Berlin cabaret vibe that was in the ascendant when Brecht and Weill first staged the show; here, it ensures the performers never have to sing over the orchestra.

The gallows speech is one of Paxton's finest moments, but his finesse as an actor can be appreciated earlier as Macheath talks with a group of prostitutes he knows will likely betray him.

Not that we care. Macheath lies shamelessly to every woman he claims to love, schemes to betray each member of his gang even as they follow his orders, and stupidly risks his life to have meaningless sex with untrustworthy women.

Paxton and Hunt share the stage with several other remarkable actors. Terri Madden (Mrs. Peachum) stands out as a strong physical presence and the star of several pivotal musical numbers. Jody Bill (as Polly Peachum), Shawna Gobble (Jenny Diver) and Kristin Stone (Lucy Brown) add to the drama as Macheath's three leading ladies.

Bill plays a stereotypical dumb blonde in the early faux wedding scene and does a beautiful job later sparring with Stone in the neatly choreographed “;Jealousy Number.”; Stone is the enchanting star of a piano bar number (”;Barbara Song”;), and Gobble commands vocally and visually in “;Pimp's Ballad (Tango)”; and “;Solomon Song.”;

Kelly Pohl (Tiger Brown) is energetic and engaging as the corrupt but ethical police officer, and Michael Duda was an audience favorite on opening night as the barely dressed golden messenger from Queen Victoria.