Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers

by Stewart F. Lane

  4. Group Theater, Acting Teachers and Life During Wartime forcing them to flee from many parts of the world created a need to be socially and/or politically aware. Often outnumbered, many Jews of the era learned to “sleep with one eye open” as the saying goes. The dramatic writers of the 1930s and ’40s were among those who were aware of the struggles of both Jews and Americans. They absorbed as much as they could from the political and social climate and tried to express their observations on paper. Some were part of Group Theater, while others worked independently. Many took part in social and political activities, and several made a significant impact upon American literature and on Broadway. Here are a few:

  CLIFFORD ODETS

  Born in 1906 in Philadelphia to a middle-class Jewish family, Clifford Odets would write dramatic works featuring characters of various cultures and ethnicities. He would become widely considered the greatest dramatist of the 1930s.

  After his family moved to New York during his youth, Odets continued his education into high school but then dropped out to pursue his interest in theater, performing in small repertory groups. Troubled and often alone, Odets reportedly made several suicide attempts while trying to find his own voice and struggling with his identity. In the 1930s, as mentioned above, he became a prominent member of Group Theater.

  However, he was always seeking some greater sense of order, and with that in mind he was inspired to join the Communist Party while evolving from an actor to a playwright.

  It was during the 1930s that Odets would write Waiting for Lefty about a labor union strike, along with Awake and Sing! , and Paradise Lost, three of his most powerful works, all staged by the group and all written about struggles of the poor or downtrodden.

  Odets’ works featured bold characters. The dialogue was that of the working class, gritty and real. His early writing also focused heavily on social and political concerns. However, in Golden Boy he dealt with inner turmoil between the desire for financial success and that of striving for personal fulfillment and love. Much of this epic drama was thought to have stemmed from Odets’ inner conflict. While Odets’ Communist ties were evident in some of his work, they came to the forefront in Till the 81

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  Day I Die, in which he wrote about the Communists and the Nazis, and their differences.

  While his works remained brooding and engaging, Odets’ plays of the 40s lost the anguish and passion of the earlier years. His stories dealt more with personal issues and human psychology. Nonetheless, Odets, who died in 1963, is best remembered for writing about social injustice and the struggles of the working class.

  ELMER RICE

  Born to poor second-generation Jewish immigrants in 1892, Elmer Leopold Reizenstein grew up in New York City. He took an early interest in theater as a child, reading plays, taking part in school productions and going to shows with his parents, when they could afford to take him.

  Rice was a good student and went on to law school from which he graduated in 1912. However Rice did not pursue the practice of law as he was disenchanted by what he considered the hypocrisy of the profession, which had lawyers making compromises on what they believed in order to win a case. Instead, much to the displeasure of his family, he decided to try his hand at writing a play based upon that which he learned while in law school. The result was his first play called On Trial, which was produced on Broadway in 1914. The show was an instant success, drawing critical acclaim and running for 350 performances. It was also just the beginning for one of the most prolific dramatists of the 20th century.

  After a couple less successful plays, Rice wrote a tragic/comedy called The Adding Machine about a bookkeeper who is replaced by an add ing machine and goes on to murder his boss. The play, staged in 1923, became a big hit, as did Street Scene, in 1929, which would win Rice a Pulitzer Prize. He then wrote Counselor-at-Law, a play that would return him to writing based on his legal training.

  The work of Elmer Rice reflected rebellion and earned him a reputation as a crusader. He was always fighting for freedom of speech and reflected such challenges in his work, depicting the struggles of tenement life in Street Scene and addressing Nazism in America in American Landscape. While the critics were often harsh, claiming his work to be too avant garde, Rice was never one to conform, continuing to write some 82

  4. Group Theater, Acting Teachers and Life During Wartime 50 plays on a wide range of subjects in a career that spanned 50 years.

  Although he did not have the blockbuster hits nor the great American classic dramas, his works, often reflecting his Socialist beliefs, were innovative, experimental and pushed the idea of uncensored freedom of expression. As a result Rice, while not a household name, was often one whose works were discussed and debated in theater and drama classes.

  LILLIAN HELLMAN

  Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans in 1905 to Jewish parents.

  At the age of five, her family moved to New York City. However, she still spent part of her childhood years at a boarding house in the South run by her aunts. Like many other writers, performers and musicians of the era, Hellman attended Columbia University, and, also like many writers, performers and musicians of the era, she would not graduate.

  Instead, at the age of 20, she was hired as a book reviewer for the New York Herald Tribune.

  After heading to Hollywood and back, her playwriting career would take off at the age of 29 with The Children’s Hour, about a child who accuses her teachers of being lesbians, a very controversial theme for the time. Hellman, however, made the point that the overriding theme of the play, based on a true story from Scotland, was the power of a lie to ruin the careers of these two women. The outcome for the controversial drama was a run of 700 performances on Broadway, making it one of the most successful dramas of 1935.

  Although Hellman would write only 11 more plays, among them was The Little Foxes about the deception, mistrust and greed of a southern family, the Hubbards, at the turn of the century. The show opened on Broadway in 1939 and was a major hit, leading to the movie adaptation, the same year. Starring Bette Davis, the film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but didn’t win any in the year of Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Chips Goes to Washington. She would later write about the Hubbard family again in her 1946 drama, Another Part of the Forest. Hellman moved to screenwriting throughout the ’40s, and her works included Watch on the Rhine.

  Throughout her life, Lillian Hellman remained active in social causes, and although she claims she never officially joined the Communist 83

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  or Socialist parties, like many of the Jewish writers and performers of the thirties and forties, she remained very much to the political left.

  Hellman took part in, or supported, the activities of groups with liberal agendas. This would later catch up with her during the Communist witch-hunts of the early 1950s.

  SIDNEY KINGSLEY

  Another Jewish playwright from New York City, Sidney Kingsley was born in 1906 and grew up with an interest in theater. At Cornell University in the 1920s, he pursued his interest by writing for the school’s drama club.

  Kingsley’s first play, Men in White, as noted earlier, was performed by Group Theater in 1933 and became one of their earliest hits. The show also garnered Kingsley a Pulitzer Prize. His next several plays would focus on social issues that included ghetto housing and anti-war senti-ments. His historical drama, while the United States was engaged in World War II, called The Patriots, opened in 1943 and was highly acclaimed. The play, chronicling the rivalry between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton at the turn of the 19th century, was well received by audiences at a time when the nation was focusing on patriotism, democracy and seeking the strength necessary to achieve victory in World War II. The Patriots ran on Broadway for 173 performances.

  After a brief post-war stint in Hollywood, Kingsley would return to write for Broadway in the 1950s. His dramatic works included Darkness at Noon, based on Arthu
r Koestler’s novel about the Moscow Show Trials of 1938 and Communism.

  Broadway During the War Years

  Clearly, the war years took their toll on Broadway as many young men were called into military service and many women were doing their part to help the war efforts at home. Funding for Broadway shows was hard to secure and, still reeling from the depression years, more and more people were opting for a less expensive form of entertainment, the movies.

  What was at one time over 250 productions staged in the late 1920s was 84

  4. Group Theater, Acting Teachers and Life During Wartime now down to 72 Broadway shows in the 1940-41 season. Some theaters were even forced to shut down, while others were transformed into movie houses and even used promotions like “free dish nights” to attract customers. This promotional idea lasted through the war years and on into the 1950s and featured one piece from a set of dishes given away to each paying customer. To make matters worse, the area around Broadway, particularly 42nd Street, was featuring burlesque shows and becoming a haven for prostitution, gambling and other undesirable activities, making it less appealing for families to attend shows at night.

  The war nonetheless brought together the people of the United States, including the left- and right-wingers, who stood behind their nation. More than half a million Jewish soldiers were part of the United States Armed Forces and fought in World War II. In support of the war effort, the American Theater Wing recruited numerous volunteers, many from the Broadway shows. The Shubert Brothers donated their 44th Street Theater, and this became home to the Stage Door Canteen, which was opened by the Theater Wing to provide food and entertainment for the servicemen on leave from the war. Thousands of servicemen from all over the world visited the famed Stage Door Canteen, and many of the Broadway performers of the era donated their time to sing, dance or put on sketches. In time, there were nine stage door canteens operating in several cities and in three countries, all helping lift the spirits of the Allied troops. By late 1945, after the war, when the stage door canteens ran their final shows, it was estimated that some 20 million servicemen and personnel helping the war effort had been entertained by the dedicated volunteers while having a meal or at least a cup of coffee.

  A series of sketches presented to factory workers, also doing their part for the war effort, was another part of the Theater Wing’s dedication to helping during the war years. Featuring Broadway actors, along with various other singers, dancers and comics, these shows, called Lunchtime Follies, became very popular. The shows, while entertaining, also served to rally workers behind the common cause. Moss Hart was one among a number of Broadway writers to volunteer to write for the Lunchtime Follies.

  Across the country, the Hollywood Canteen was also providing servicemen with food and entertainment. John Garfield and Bette Davis were instrumental in launching this West Coast version of the Stage Door 85

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  Canteen. Garfield had attempted to enlist in the military on two occasions but was turned down due to heart damage.

  The United Service Organization (USO) was also instrumental in providing the servicemen with entertainment, starting with Camp Shows in 1941, and the government gave ample support to the cause. Many stage and screen performers joined in on these performances staged in various parts of the world.

  While some of Broadway’s finest were doing what they could to entertain the servicemen in these difficult times, others were serving in the military. Among the half-million Jewish troops serving in World War II were several names that would be featured prominently in Broadway’s future, including Mel Brooks ( The Producers), who saw action de-activat -

  ing mines in the Battle of the Bulge, Neil Simon (who wrote more than 20 Broadway hits including Biloxi Blues about his World War II military training) and Sid Caesar ( Little Me).

  Meanwhile, despite the falling number of shows, there were still nearly 11 million people, including many servicemen on leave, taking in Broadway shows in 1943. Along with Irving Berlin’s patriotic hit, This Is the Army, another show featuring a significant number of military personnel was called Winged Victory. Written and directed by Moss Hart, Winged Victory ran for 212 performances at the 44th Street Theater.

  Something for the Boys, featuring plenty of singing and dancing designed to boost the morale of American troops, saw nearly 450 performances before being made into a film. Of course there were also mainstream fav -

  orites, such as another version of Ziegfeld’s perennial follies, which in 1943 starred Milton Berle. At age 35, Berle was in the prime of his long career and provided much-needed comedy during a very stressful time.

  The 1943 version of the Follies played over 550 performances.

  Daniel Kaye Kominsk, the son of Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants, better known as Danny Kaye, was also making audiences laugh on Broadway in the early ’40s in the Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin, Moss Hart comedy Lady in the Dark, which ran for over 450 performances at the Alvin Theater. Kaye then starred in the Cole Porter, Herbert and Dorothy Fields comedy Let’s Face It, which delighted audiences for more than 550 performances. The show included some songs written by Kaye’s wife, songwriter Sylvia Fine, who became well known for writing very witty, extremely fast-paced songs for her husband and other performers.

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  4. Group Theater, Acting Teachers and Life During Wartime Coming off his classic role as the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz, Bert Lahr was another Jewish performer from New York City who entertained audiences during the war years. Born Irving Lahrheim, the young actor dropped out of school at 15 to make a name for himself on the burlesque circuit in the 1920s and soon made it to Broadway in the 1927 show Harry Delmar’s Revels. He was in a number of revues in the 1930s including some of Ziegfeld’s, and in the 1940s, he was featured in Seven Lively Arts, Meet the People and Make Mine Manhattan. While he would forever be immortalized as the cowardly lion, Lahr became regarded as one of the all-time great clowns of American theater, contin -

  uing the Jewish humor of the early days of Yiddish theater and certainly of vaudeville as well as the Jewish clowning that had been prevalent in Europe in the previous century. Later on in his long career, Lahr would also take on some serious roles, such as appearing in Waiting for Godot.

  However, he was best remembered on Broadway for his comedy.

  A musical talent to make his mark on Broadway during the war years was composer Kurt Julian Weill, born in the Jewish quarter of Des -

  sau, Germany, in 1900. By the age of 15, Weill was adept at the piano and already studying music composition, music theory and conducting.

  By the early 1930s, he had established himself as a successful composer in Germany. Being Jewish, however, Weill was forced to flee from Nazi rule in 1933 and settled in Paris. Just two years later Weill and his wife made their way to New York City, where he adapted his works to suit the American style of musicals.

  Weill’s string of Broadway hits would begin in the late ’30s with Knickerbocker Holiday opening at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. He would follow with several successful shows through the ’40s including Lady in the Dark, with Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart, One Touch of Venus, Street Scene by Elmer Rice and Love Life and Lost in the Stars. Sadly, Weill, who, like many others, joined in the volunteer efforts during the war years, died of a heart attack in 1950. It was a few years later that his Threepenny Opera would emerge as a huge Broadway hit. The show had made its way to Broadway very briefly in 1933 after being triumphant throughout Europe. Its return in 1954 opened in March and ran for some 2,611 performances, making it, at the time, the most successful musical of all time. The show featured the “Ballad of Mack the Knife.”

  While Weill and other Jewish composers, lyricists, playwrights, 87

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  directors and performers teamed up in many configurations throughout the ’30s and ’40s, there was one successful show during the war years that brought together four highly significant new talents to the Great White Way. On
the Town, which opened during the end of the year holidays in 1944 introduced the writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the music of Leonard Bernstein and the choreography of Jerome Robbins to Broadway.

  COMDEN AND GREEN

  The musical writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green stepped into the spotlight with On the Town, only they did it from off-stage , both having had less than stellar acting careers. It would serve as the debut for one of the greatest musical teams in Broadway history.

  While many thought they were married on one another, they were not.

  Comden and Green were essentially a New York–born writing team who met in 1938 through mutual friends and went on to write numerous hits for Broadway and later on for Hollywood.

  Both frustrated by their lack of acting roles, they formed their own acting troupe that performed in Greenwich Village at a club called the Vil lage Vanguard. While their shows were well received, they both became tired of trying to find material that they wanted to perform on stage. Therefore, they decided to try their hand at writing music and lyr ics for their own shows. At some of their shows, Green invited his musician friend Leonard Bernstein to accompany them on piano. It was Bernstein, however, who invited them to work on the book for his ballet entitled Fancy Free, which he had composed with a young choreographer named Jerome Robbins. From this ballet, a Broadway musical emerged with a simple plotline about three sailors on shore leave pursuing three young women around New York City. This simple show was renamed On the Town, and featured music, dancing and an optimistic love of life that made it the triumphant musical hit of 1945 at the Adelphi Theater.

  The show also featured the classic song “New York, New York” and had Comden and Green performing on stage as part of the original cast. On the Town would enjoy two revivals and become a major motion picture as well.

  Comden and Green would go on to write Billion Dollar Baby in the 88

  4. Group Theater, Acting Teachers and Life During Wartime same year, 1945, and collaborate with Bernstein again in 1953 on Wonderful Town, also about life in New York City, with an un-credited Jerome Robbins handling choreography along with the legendary George Abbott.