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

by Stewart F. Lane

  “I feel better when I lose Tonys than when I win them. When I win, I become part of that Broadway thing. When I lose, it makes me feel clean,” Papp was quoted as saying in a New York Daily News article.11

  Born Joseph Papirofsky in Brooklyn in 1921, to Jewish immigrant parents from Russia, Papp spent his youth helping his family make ends meet with a series of jobs ranging from telegraph messenger to chicken plucker. It was in the Navy, during World War II, that he discovered his knack for staging shows with limited resources. After the war, while 145

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  working as a stage manager at CBS television, Papp fell victim to the anti– Communist scourge, being labeled as a Communist sympathizer.

  Despite having just served in the United States Navy, his work with a radical acting group in California and his left wing views were enough circumstantial evidence to cause Papp to lose his job. But his loss was New York City’s gain. Papp had always wanted to bring affordable theater to the people of the city by presenting free Shakespearian plays in the city’s parks. In the late 1950s, his dream became a reality when he would stage the first Shakespeare plays in Central Park. Of course, Papp and the newly named Shakespeare Festival in the Park would be challenged by politicians, such as the mayor of New York City at that time, Robert Moses, who tried to shut down the free shows for fear of ruining the park. Papp would go head to head with the mayor and win public support. With many prominent New Yorkers backing his efforts, he would proceed to win the battle and dazzle New Yorkers, which is not an easy feat.

  In the many years of the Shakespeare in the Park Festival, stars including James Earl Jones, George C. Scott, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Meryl Streep, Sam Waterson, Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt have participated. And when the festival needed money, the public was generous and donated what they could so that the shows would continue.

  Once the Shakespeare in the Park Festival found a permanent home in Central Park’s open air Delacorte Theater, Papp turned his attention to his other goal of presenting public theater. He wanted to find a venue in which new, innovative and alternative plays and musicals could be introduced to the public. Such a people’s theater would be a place where plays could be developed and where theatergoers could enjoy a performance for a reasonable price. In 1967, following a new law in New York City which stated that buildings deemed as landmarks could not be torn down, Papp found an ideal venue in the old Astor Library in New York’s East Village. The price was right as the city charged just $1 per year in rent.

  Following a massive renovation, the new Public Theater would present many original plays, generating attention from a diverse audience that was not the typical “Broadway theater crowd” by Papp’s assessment.

  These shows took on major issues of the time, much as the Group Theater 146

  6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s had done in the 1930s. Little did Papp know that some of the shows in the Public Theater would have a major effect on Broadway. One of the first productions was the counter-cultural hippie tribal rock musical Hair.

  Of course the musical would eventually move to Broadway in 1968 and become a triumphant success, revived in recent years. Other Papp productions would follow the path to Broadway, the most famous of which being A Chorus Line, followed by I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, among others. The difference was that following the success of Hair, Papp remained attached to the other shows as producer once the shows made their transition to the Great White Way. While still not a fan of Broadway’s commercialism, Papp was no fool, and he knew he could use the money earned by one Broadway smash hit to maintain the Public Theater and the New York Shakespeare Festival as well as support other ventures such as the Theater for a New Audience and the Riverside Shakespeare Company. In addition to presenting new shows, Papp supported nontraditional, rainbow casting and, in part spurred on by his son being gay, responded to the growing AIDS crisis in New York City by presenting Larry Kramer’s controversial play on the subject, called A Normal Heart, which generated critical acclaim and brought the issue to greater public awareness.

  Sure, Papp criticized Broadway, but his influence was, and still is, significant. Public Theater provided a starting point for shows, some of which clearly impacted Broadway, while others left their mark on audiences in Off Broadway productions. A true visionary, Papp actually saved Broadway in the ’70s with A Chorus Line, and in the process also saved the struggling Shubert Organization that brought the show to one of its theaters. For young performers he was a godsend. Whether he was doing Shakespeare in the Park or The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, part of David Rabe’s Vietnam War Trilogy (which also went to Broadway and won a Tony Award), Papp gave young performers of all races, colors and religions an opportunity to be part of meaningful theater. He truly believed in opening the doors for new talent including up-and-coming playwrights, producers and directors.

  Nine years after his death in 2000, the Joseph Papp Children’s Human itarian Fund was formed to help Jewish children in the Ukraine receive the food, homes and medical care they so badly need.

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  Jewish Life in the ’60s and ’70s

  Many of the half-million Jewish soldiers in World War II took advantage of the GI Bill and went to college. The result was that by the 1960s, there was an increase in Jewish professionals living the good life in the vastly growing suburbs, especially around New York City.

  While assimilation, money and stability also planted the seeds for a new conservatism among some Jews, many others followed the lineage that leaned to the political left. Members of the Jewish community, now more firmly entrenched in the greater community at large, became active in the growing feminist movement, the gay and lesbian community, the anti-war protests and other social and cultural issues that epitomized the

  ’60s and spilled over into the ’70s. From rabbis to social, community and political leaders, to playwrights, producers, directors and performers, the Jewish people took part in addressing the issues that came to the forefront during these eye-opening decades. From the Public Theater of Joseph Papp, to Off Broadway to Broadway itself, theater remained one place in which to shed light on many of the important issues and concerns of the day ... while also providing marvelous entertainment.

  In addition, American Jews brought attention to the struggles of their fellow Jews abroad. For example, there was growing awareness and support for Soviet Jews who were still seeking a better life. There was also a growing commitment to the young state of Israel, support that has remained a common bond throughout the Jewish community.

  As was once the case with the Yiddish theater, the Jewish community embraced Broadway, especially as they saw more of themselves and their culture on stage. The regular, typically more affluent, Manhattan-based “theater crowd” now extended off the island and into the boroughs, onto Long Island, up north into Westchester and Connecticut, and across the river into New Jersey. Jewish families were among the most frequent supporters and visitors of Broadway theater.

  And yet, despite enjoying numerous shows from their seats in the orchestra or the balconies, and recognizing the significance of the many hugely successful Jewish stars behind the scenes or under the stage lights, many Jewish parents, including my own, still had great skepticism about their sons and daughters embarking on a career in theater. I guess some things never change.

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  with a Message, Inflation,

  Disney and Me

  The 1980s and 1990s brought a new breed of Jewish playwrights to Broadway. Not unlike the writers of the 1930s Group Theater, these young writers were politically astute and were also hoping to raise awareness to significant social issues and political oversights through their work. For them, issues such as the anti–Semitism of the 1930s were no longer among the prominent concerns. The impact upon B
roadway by Jewish writers, composers and performers was now quite well accepted, and being a Jewish playwright or composer may have even proven to be advantageous considering the track record.

  Many of the new generation of Jewish playwrights were gay, and they had very serious concerns about social acceptance and about the growing AIDS epidemic. One of the best known of these playwrights was Larry Kramer.

  Born in 1935, Kramer grew up in a Jewish family in Maryland.

  Although he dated women in high school, he was exploring his sexuality, and by the time he was in Yale, in the mid 1950s, he realized that he was gay. By the late 1970s, Kramer had already enjoyed screen success with Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence, and had written a satirical novel entitled Faggots. Along with his involvement in gay causes, Kramer gained a lot of attention for his views on the gay lifestyle. He frequently spoke out against gay promiscuity and promoted lasting monogamous relation -

  ships. As the AIDS epidemic grew, Kramer’s voice became more prominent as he sought to increase public awareness, political action and 149

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  fund ing for the medical community to conduct research in an effort to find an effective cure. He was highly critical of the society’s blind eye toward the growing crisis.

  Kramer’s success and status as a playwright was based largely on one epic drama, The Normal Heart, which ran through the 1980s at the Public Theater. While the illness is unnamed in the play, it is the central theme of a show that came in part from the deaths of many of Kramer’s friends and tugged at the hearts of both gay and straight audiences. It was a landmark play that has since been produced hundreds of times throughout the United States and in countries around the globe. The Normal Heart became synonymous with promoting awareness of the AIDS crisis. In 2000, the Royal National Theater in London named The Normal Heart one of the one hundred greatest plays of the 20th century.

  Another gay Jewish playwright, Tony Kushner also made a major impact in the struggle to generate greater awareness about the AIDS

  crisis. Born in 1956, Kushner grew up in Louisiana, where he developed an interest in writing. He would come to New York City in the 1970s to attend Columbia University. After several attempts to get his work staged, Kushner’s play The Age of Assassins was produced Off Broadway at the Newfoundland Theatre. From there, Kushner began having his plays produced Off Broadway and outside of New York City. He wrote both original works and adaptations of successful other playwrights’

  works ranging from Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest.

  It was his 1992 seven-hour epic, Angels in America (a play in two parts: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika), about the HIV epidemic and the political climate of the time, that brought Kushner to national attention. Angels won Kushner a Pulitzer Prize and was later turned into a movie. It drew attention to the epidemic and was considered one of the most significant works of the decade.

  Kushner would later generate attention once again for the musical Caroline, or Change which followed a successful Off Broadway run with several months on Broadway in 2004. Kushner wrote the book and lyrics while Jeanine Tesori, a noted Jewish arranger and composer, supplied the music.

  Tesori, a Barnard College graduate, first made it to Broadway in 150

  7. Young Playwrights with a Message, Inflation, Disney and Me 1995 while working on the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In 2000, she worked with Dick Scanlon composing original songs for Thoroughly Modern Millie. Tesori also worked with Kushner on his revival of Mother Courage and Her Children as part of the Shakespeare in the Park Festival in 2004.

  Her work on Caroline, or Change was particularly interesting in that it combined numerous musical styles including Jewish klezmer and folk music that was originally brought to America by the Eastern European immigrants. Klezmer music influenced many composers including Leo -

  nard Bernstein.

  Jonathan Larson was another of the young Jewish forces in theater in the 1990s, in this case with his music and lyrics as well as his playwriting. Born in 1960 and raised in White Plains, New York, Larson not only learned piano as a youngster, but also learned the trumpet and tuba.

  His music was accompanied by his passion for acting. In college, he performed in, and composed music for, several productions at Adelphi University.

  Settling in the West Village, Larson wrote plays about social issues including homophobia and acceptance. His somewhat autobiographical production of Tick...Tick...BOOM! ran Off Off Broadway and generated attention in the early 1990s. During this time, Larson would begin work on a show called Rent, a rock opera about struggling artists on New York’s Lower East Side. Sadly, Larson would never see the huge success of Rent on Broadway. Larson died of a rare disorder known as Marfan’s syndrome.

  Rent, nonetheless, took on a life of its own, running on Broadway for an incredible 5,124 performances over 12 years and winning the Tony Award for Best Musical. Larson received a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for his work on Rent.

  While young playwrights and activists from the gay community and the theater community worked hard to spread the word about the growing epidemic in hopes of generating support, the number of victims was rapidly growing. One of those to succumb to AIDS was choreographer/director Michael Bennett.

  Born in 1943, Bennett’s mother was Jewish, his father Roman Cath -

  olic. A dancer from a young age, Bennett dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to join a touring company of Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story. Although Bennett danced his way to Broadway in the musical Sub-151

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  ways Are for Sleeping in 1961, he opted instead to set his sights on choreography.

  His career as a choreographer included Promises, Promises; Coco; Stephen Sondheim’s Company; and Seesaw, a show on which he also served as librettist and director. Bennett brought openly gay characters to Broadway in this 1973 show, a rarity at the time. It was, however, in 1975 that Bennett’s innovative concept of creating a show won him both critical acclaim and Tony Awards. Using numerous hours of interviews with actual performers, Bennett created A Chorus Line, which earned over $37 million for the Public Theater. Bennett would have another huge hit in 1981 with Dreamgirls, producing and directing his way to Tony nominations. Sadly, Bennett was only 44 when he died in 1987, three years before A Chorus Line closed. Much like Robbins before him, Bennett made an impact as a choreographer and a director, bringing new energy to the dance and movement of an entire production. He was part of the gay Jewish theater community that lost too many members to a modern day plague.

  Another Jewish-born spokesperson for gay civil rights who emerged in the 1980s was playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein. The raspy-voiced Brooklyn native, Fierstein launched his career as an openly gay comic, actor and female impersonator at New York clubs. He catapulted to fame with his play Torch Song Trilog y, starring in his own work, which had rarely been done on Broadway since Woody Allen in Play It Again, Sam.

  Originally an Off Broadway show staged in Greenwich Village, Torch Song Trilog y moved to Broadway in 1982. Fierstein won Tony Awards for both the play and for his acting. The show broke conventional norms, using three one-act plays to create one four-hour, three-part trilogy about a Jewish drag queen living in New York City and searching for love and acceptance. While Torch Song Trilog y continued for over 1,200

  performances, Fierstein took on the job of writing the book for La Cage aux Folles, which would open on Broadway in 1983.

  Following La Cage, Fierstein would move on to other projects, writing or performing. His role as Tracy Turnblad’s stage mother Edna, in Hairspray, won him another Tony Award in 2003. I also brought him in to play Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof in 2004, a role he enjoyed so much that he returned to play it again when the production went on tour.

  Not unlike Zero Mostel on Broadway, or Boris Thomashefsky in 152

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ghts with a Message, Inflation, Disney and Me Yiddish theater, Harvey Fierstein established himself as a consummate stage performer, able to take on a wide variety of roles, some serious, others comical, and always put his signature on the show. Along with Nathan Lane and a few other select performers, Fierstein has a drawing power on Broadway that does not come from another medium, but from his Tony Award–winning body of stage work and his reputation as a performer.

  And finally, there is David Mamet, a Jewish-born playwright and director who grew up in the Chicago area but settled in New York City where he helped form an Off Broadway theater company from which many of his early plays emerged. Throughout the 1970s, Mamet became known for tackling a wide range of subject matter in his work, often with dark humor and profanity laced within his tightly crafted dialogue.

  Shows such as Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Duck Variations and American Buffalo all generated significant attention Off Broadway.

  It was in the 1980s that Mamet made it to Broadway with Glengarry Glen Ross. The show, which depicted unethical and amoral business practices, became a highly acclaimed hit. In fact, the Pulitzer Prize–winning drama was widely considered Mamet’s most significant work. Mamet would follow with Speed the Plow in 1988, which took a satirical look at the film business.

  Mamet continued turning out plays that were rich in dialogue and prompted many critical discussions, such as his 1992 two-person show, Oleana. Not unlike Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, Oleana skill-fully explored how one person’s accusations could destroy someone else’s life. Mamet’s knack for exploring the human condition clearly made him one of the most heralded playwrights of the late 1980s and 1990s. He remains a respected writer and spokesperson on the American theater today.

  Wendy Wasserstein