When the spotlight shines on Amy Jo Diebold in the University Theatre's upcoming production of "The Threepenny Opera," ghosts of the musical theater's past and future will be in the shadows.

Diebold will play Polly Peachum, a role made famous on Broadway in the 1950s by Jo Sullivan, who grew up in these parts. Coincidentally, Diebold last year won the scholarship Sullivan established at Southeast in the name of her late husband, Broadway composer and lyricist, Frank Loesser.

Meanwhile, Diebold and other members of the "Threepenny Opera" cast may be setting the stage for future Southeast students to major in musical theater -- a major that has never been offered here.

"The Threepenny Opera" opens Wednesday and continues Feb. 23, 24, 25 and 26 at the Forrest H. Rose Theatre. Curtains are at 8 p.m. except for the 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, Feb. 26.

A marriage of theater and music describes "Threepenny Opera" and this collaboration between the university's music and theater departments. Such a partnership hasn't occurred in many years at Southeast and is being viewed as a turning point that could lead to an interdisciplinary major.

"I see it as the beginning of the development of a musical theater program at the university," says Sterling Cossaboom, chairman of the music department and the musical director of "Threepenny Opera."

"There is a great market out there, and an opportunity for us to bring to Cape Girardeau kids, like a Jo Sullivan, who had to go elsewhere."

Seconded Don Schulte, chairman of the theater department and the musical's director: "I think we're missing a big bet if we don't do that."

The leads in the musical are evenly distributed between theater and music majors. Besides theater major Diebold, other major roles are essayed by theater veteran Dan Akre as Mr. Peachum and music majors Chris Hayes (Macheath) and Kara Weber (Mrs. Peachum.)

Both Cossaboom and Schulte think "Threepenny Opera" is one of the most challenging works the University Theatre has attempted. The players were chosen not so much for their ability to develop a character as for "finding a character in the voice," Cossaboom said.

"We have fine theater kids singing up a storm."

"The Threepenny Opera" tells the story of a businessman who exploits human misery and the daughter who wants to wed the most notorious cutthroat in London.

Musical experimentation and near-slapstick comedy are central to the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill three-act musical, but social and political satire are its point. Brecht was satirizing the gap between the wealthy and the poor in 1920s Germany, and the abuse of power by big government.

Its timeliness is no accident. "By the time I picked the play last spring, clearly all that was in the air," Schulte said.

Brecht was interested in making audiences think -- in an entertaining way, Schulte said.

"He decided the theater of his time had a tendency to allow people in the audience to sit back and enjoy but not have to act on it."

"...He believed art of all kinds ought always make people think."

From the audience, Brecht requires an open mind toward his play's diversions from the expected.

In place of the realism modern audiences have come to expect from TV and movies is a near-theater of the absurd.

"I hope the audience will let themselves in moment by moment," Schulte said.

"Threepenny Opera" is a black comedy, Cossaboom says. "It's got to drip sarcasm, exude cynicism and be larger than life all the time. To get the humor across you really have to play the audience."

Audiences will recognize "Mack the Knife," a song popularized by Bobby Darin, but much of Weill's music is purposefully discordant and unsettling.

The mostly student orchestra, which will be onstage, will consist of a guitar, banjo, trombone, piano, harmonium and percussion. Cossaboom will conduct from the orchestra pit, with associate musical director Chris Goeke appearing with the orchestra onstage.

The musical, translated and adapted for an off-Broadway production in 1954 and repackaged for Broadway a year later, ran for 2,600 performances, outstripping the popularity of both "Oklahoma!" and "South Pacific" at the time.

Jo Sullivan, who sang a duet with Bea Arthur in the original "Threepenny Opera," still performs occasionally. She currently is producing a revival of "How to Get Ahead in Business Without Really Trying," one of her husband's biggest hits.