Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers
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JEWS ON BROADWAY
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JEWS ON BROADWAY
An Historical Survey of
Performers, Playwrights, Composers,
Lyricists and Producers
Stewart F. Lane
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Lane, Stewart F.
Jews on Broadway: an historical survey of performers,
playwrights, composers, lyricists and producers / Stewart F. Lane.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-5917-9
softcover : 55# alkaline paper
1. Jews in the performing arts — New York (State)— New York —
History — 20th century. 2. Jewish entertainers — New York (State)— New York — History — 20th century. 3. Jews in popular culture — United States. 4. Theater — New York (State)— New York — History — 20th century. 5. Musicals — New York (State)—
New York — History — 20th century. 6. Broadway (New York, N.Y.) I. Title.
PN1590.J48L35 2011
791.089' 924 — dc22
2010051309
BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
© 2011 Stewart F. Lane. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover images © 2011 Shutterstock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my wife, Bonnie,
who has always encouraged me
to push the envelope
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Preface
1
Introduction: Setting the Stage
3
1. Immigration, Yiddish Theater and Building Broadway
7
2. Part of the Melting Pot: From Vaudeville to Broadway 30
3. The Music of Broadway: Classic Composers, Legendary Lyricists
47
4. Group Theater, Acting Teachers and Life During Wartime 71
5. From Communism to the Catskills
94
6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s 119
7. Young Playwrights with a Message, Inflation, Disney and Me
149
8. The New Millennium Sees Broadway Breakthroughs:
Veterans and Newcomers
176
Epilogue
195
Chapter Notes
197
Bibliography
199
Further Reading
203
Index
207
vii
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Acknowledgments
Putting together a book of this nature is not an easy task. With that in mind, I’d like to acknowledge several people for their work and contributions.
Thank you to Rich Mintzer for assistance; Janis Gibson for research; Ellen Adler, Nahma Sandow, Charles Strouse and Tovah Feldshuh for input; Tom Oppenheim, Karen Schauben and of course the many Jewish talents who have contributed for the past 100-plus years to Broadway.
ix
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Preface
“In many ways, the story of Broadway is also intertwined with the story of America.”
Barack Obama, White House Music
Series Event Saluting Broadway,
July 19, 2010
When I first came up with the idea of writing a book on the history of the American theater in the 20th century, I was daunted. What an unimaginable undertaking. Huge, epic in its proportions and so complex with its multi-faceted, interconnected families, names and shows, I knew it would be a significant challenge. However, because I love the theater and have spent my entire life learning about it, working in it and being a part of it, I began to break it down.
Each century is, of course, unique. The 20th century, however, was extra special for the American theater because it finally came into its own. The theater of a country reflects that country’s culture and politics.
The early attempts at playwriting and musicals in the United States could actually be called British theater or, at best, Colonial theater. General Burgoyne, the English military strategist, was also a playwright and had his work performed in New York, even as he tried to level the city.
As the nation began to mature, it slowly developed its own identity, and this was reflected in the works of the writers and poets of the time.
American theater in the 19th century tended to center on melodramas and local issues: largely newcomers (greenhorns) arriving as immi grants in a new land, or city mouse versus country mouse themes. President Lincoln was watching the melodrama My Country Cousin at the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C., when he was assassinated. Although emi-1
Preface
grants were constantly streaming into America during this century, like the Irish escaping the potato famine or the German Jews escaping persecution, it wasn’t until the next century that theater matured and started to find a voice from a generation either born overseas or emigrating as children.
It was from this point of view that I was inspired to write this book.
America is a wonderful country that embraces people from all nations.
It is this mix of cultures that makes Americans truly citizens of the world.
So, starting with the Jewish contribution to American theater, I embarked on what I hope will be an extensive study of this rich and productive period (in the future I hope to explore the Irish, African American and Asian influences as well).
The Jewish contribution during this period cannot be emphasized enough. Moving decade by decade, I will explore the gradual growth and variations, politics and nuances of a growing art form and industry.
Although these plays and musicals do not conform to numbers (nothing just ends because the decade does), the reader will see how everyone works in tandem. He will see not only how one generation is influenced by the previous generation, but also how it reaches out and provides sup port and direction for the next generation.
Having been born mid-century, I hope I can bridge the inherent gap that generations bring. I can stretch out both my arms and touch the generations of my grandparents and parents with one and use my own personal experience with the other. The more time that passes, the more difficult it is to retain the spirit, temperament, tone, reasons, emotions and passions that tell us how and why something was done or why we were inspired. I don’t want to lose that. I want to preserve that which we have learned from each new generation. The performing arts are how one generation talks to another. In many cases I have had the privilege and honor of working with some of the most successful and influential people in the industry. I have watched, listened and learned from them, and hopefully I will pass what I have learned on to future generations.
It is in this spirit that I present you with
their story, our story.
2
Introduction:
Setting the Stage
Before we take a look at over a century of Jewish contributions to Broadway, let’s take a moment to reflect upon the roots of such theatrical participation. How did the Jewish people come to have such a passion and a strong connection to the theater? From where did this theatrical enthusiasm evolve?
There are some who link the Jewish involvement in theater to the plays created and performed for the holiday Purim, called Purim Shpiels.
The holiday custom dates back centuries and recounts the events out -
lined in the book of Esther. Joyous in nature, the shpiels were originally designed to be family entertainment, and today are often presented for young children to learn the story of the holiday. However, in the 16th century, Purim Shpiels turned into professional performances with groups of touring actors playing the roles, complete with costumes and makeup.
By offering a mocking commentary, the Purim Shpiel presented a Jewish version of political justice in the world, not unlike the political satire that would become a large part of the Jewish playwright’s repertoire.
Performing, for the Jewish people, was also a manner of self-expression in societies in which they dealt with persecution. It was a means of storytelling outside of the synagogue, which was especially important when the Jewish people were unable to practice their religion publicly.
Theater also served as a means of growth and learning when formal education was hard to come by.
Part of the impetus for Yiddish theater, which precluded the Jewish involvement in American theater, came from the Jewish Enlightenment throughout Europe in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, called 3
Introduction
Haskalah. This was a philosophical and social movement that encouraged the Jewish people to explore secular subjects and to enter fields such as agriculture, science and the arts. Haskalah influenced education by stress-ing not only Jewish teaching but also the need to put emphasis on a secular education, which meant learning both Hebrew and the European languages. The idea was to reach out beyond the Jewish community to also integrate with the larger community.
For the American Jews, the concept of Haskalah was evident in the assimilation of the Jewish immigrants into mainstream society. This was apparent first in Yiddish theater, particularly as it grew to include the works of Gordin and adaptations of classic literature not based on Jewish history. It was even more evident in the second generation of American Jews, who gravitated from Yiddish, which during the enlightenment was no longer spoken throughout most of Europe, to English-speaking theater.
Also evident from this period of enlightenment was the writing of books that presented Jewish characters in current settings rather than focusing on historic events or religious themes. This too spilled over to the American Jewish writers, including the many playwrights who focused on the current Jewish experience as it pertained to being part of American customs and culture. While Haskalah ended in Europe, it had lasting effects on Jewish theater and the arts.
In the Pages That Follow
Through the next eight chapters, we take a look at the Jewish experience as it pertains not just to theater, but to Broadway, which came to be accepted in the early part of the century as the apex of American theater.
The Jewish theatrical story in America begins with immigration to the land of hope and freedom and with the evolution of Yiddish theater in America which, during its heyday, was every bit as noteworthy and successful as Broadway.
In the coming chapters we will travel with the Jewish performers, playwrights, composers and lyricists from Yiddish theater to the next generation of vaudeville performers and then on to the years leading up 4
Introduction
to the Second World War. We will take a chapter to pay tribute to the immense contributions of a handful of composers and lyricists that redefined the American musical forever. Then we will explore The Group Theater and the dramas that depicted life during the Great Depression amid the growing anti–Semitism that existed prior to World War II.
Following the patriotism of the war years and the many plays and musicals that depicted life during and after wartime, we will take a look at the Communist trials of the 1950s, which affected many Jews in theater.
Finally, in the 1960s and ’70s Jewish themed shows made their way to Broadway, and assimilation was complete. By the 1990s gay Jewish playwrights were stepping up in an attempt to gain their own acceptance and promote their own social concerns including HIV/AIDS. And finally, we take a peek at the new crop of Broadway talent and even possibly at the future.
Featured in the upcoming pages are many great talents, their stories, their accomplishments and in some cases how they held onto and even brought their Jewishness into their craft. Jacob Adler, Boris Thomashefsky, Oscar Hammerstein, Fannie Brice, Al Jolson, Irving Berlin, the Gersh wins, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Clifford Odets, Stella Adler, Com den and Green, Arthur Miller, Zero Mostel, Neil Simon, David Mer rick, Tony Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, Alan Menken and Mel Brooks are all included in the Jewish contribution to Broadway ... along with many others.
Also, throughout the chapters, I have tried to include the changes in Jewish life, culture and acceptance as it paralleled that which took place onstage. After all, the productions and the people behind them typically reflected the Jewish experience in America and abroad. From those who changed their names because they were fearful of being “too Jewish” to those who clamored to play Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, the acceptance of the Jewish people in theater and in society has certainly changed, and such changes were also reflected on Broadway.
Hopefully the melting pot that has been, and still is, Broadway theater can serve as an example to society at large.
5
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1
Immigration, Yiddish Theater
and Building Broadway
If there is any definitive starting point for the Jewish impact on theater in America, it is the Yiddish theater of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Between 1880 and 1914, the Jewish population in America grew from 250,000 to 2.5 million, as the Jews fled persecution, primarily from East ern Europe. They landed at Ellis Island in New York Harbor and settled nearby in what would become the overcrowded ghettos of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Many brought with them little more than the clothes on their backs, or perhaps their few worldly possessions. However, they also brought with them an indelible spirit, a strong sense of community and the desire to build a better life for themselves and for their children. Particularly important to these immigrants were both tradition and culture, which included a relatively new form of entertainment known as Yiddish theater. This new form of theater had emerged in the 1870s in Eastern Europe and then in London.
As a means of retaining Jewish cultural roots and sense of community and embracing their newfound freedom of expression, Yiddish theater in America was born. From its emergence in the 1880s, Yiddish theater grew as a phenomenon for the immigrants, producing star performers and generating a “buzz” that spread beyond the Lower East Side of Manhattan into other cities, and even outside of the Jewish community. But for those on the Lower East Side, most of whom were working in sweat shops by day, or as laborers, the theater was a significant bond that held the community together. Drama critic and founder of the Group Theater of the 1930s, Harold Clurman was first inspired by Yiddish theater as a child. He noted in 1968 that “even more than the syn-7
Jews on Broadway
agogue or the lodge, [it] became the meeting place and the forum of the Jewish Community in America between 1888 and the early 1920s.”1
Yiddish theater was more than what we know of today as “community theater,” much more. It included featured performers who made their way to the United States for the purpose of acting without the restraints imposed by foreign governments. Boris Thomashefsky and Jacob P. Adler, wh
ose daughter Stella would become one of the legendary acting teachers of the 20th century, were two of the most celebrated national figures of this magical era. A wide range of material from melodramas to comedies was presented, often inspired by the culture and the life of the European Jews, especially those emigrating from Russia.
The appeal of the many shows presented in large theaters, some housing over 2,000 people, crossed socio-economic boundaries and made theater a rich part of the lifestyle of the Jewish people in America. However, to better appreciate the impact of Yiddish theater as the foundation for Jewish involvement in American theater, it is important to look back briefly at the emergence of Yiddish theater in the 1870s in Europe.
The Father of Yiddish Theater
Abraham Goldfadn, born in Starokonstantinov, Russia, in 1840, was heralded as the father of Yiddish theater. It was Goldfadn, a Russian intellectual, who wrote and produced the first Yiddish theater productions in Jassy, Romania, in 1876. Nahma Sandrow, author of the book Vagabond Stars: A World His tory of Yiddish Theater, describes Goldfadn as a “folk singer and folk poet, product of the popular Yiddish cultural tradition of the townlets of Eastern European countryside.”2 She goes on to expand upon his reputation as a jack of many trades, adding that Goldfadn was “a trouper, an artist, a dreamer, an intellectual, a hustler, a scrapper, a con man, a romantic, a dandy, an optimist and a one man band.”3 This was exemplified by his various careers, which included shop owner and editor of several newspapers, all of which eventually failed.
He was also a songwriter for some of the Broder singers of the era, who were flashy, somewhat flamboyant life-of-the-party entertainers.
In fact, it was one such Broder singer, a Lithuanian Jew named Israel Grodner, who inspired Goldfadn to start writing and producing 8
1. Immigration, Yiddish Theater and Building Broadway plays that would incorporate a story along with the music of the era.
According to Sandrow, there are many versions of how the first Yiddish theater production came to be. Whether Goldfadn came to see Grodner perform, or Grodner summoned Goldfadn and suggested that he use the music in play form, remains debatable, but what is known for sure is that Goldfadn first took the stage to perform sophisticated poems and essentially bombed. Grodner, however, saved the show with his comedy and lighthearted songs. Upon seeing the response of the audience to Grod ner’s performance, Goldfadn was hooked. He would write musical numbers into his plays and then produce them.