Director-adapter Paul Sand's tour de force of ferocious Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht lieder collaborations, Kurt Weill at the Cuttlefish Hotel, boasts many of the trappings of a night of difficult theater: The venue, a shabby restaurant backroom at the end of the dodgy area of the Santa Monica Pier, is deliciously seedy, literally perched above the sea during high tide. The stage and all the seating are on the same level, creating dreadful sightlines. And, on the night reviewed, just before the show, fishermen on the dock below pulled up a dying baby shark, covered with tumors. How Brecht would have loved it! The revue consists of some of the great melodies of the Brecht-Weill canon, performed cabaret-style by an ensemble of sexy but sinister performers whose morally ambivalent attitude perfectly reflects the dark, carny atmosphere of the Santa Monica Pier after sundown. Whether it's the sensuously cruel turn offered by Shay Astar, who sings “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” with a cool, luscious voice that seems equal parts ice cream and razor blades, or the piercing vibrata of Megan Rippey's sweet but diabolical “Pirate Jenny,” Sand's production, assisted by Michael Roth's dynamically evocative music direction, crafts rich and textured renditions of these wonderful, infernal songs.

Fri., Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, 7:30 & 9 p.m. Starts: Dec. 6. Continues through Dec. 28, 2013

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