Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers
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Nonetheless, he was able to take his act from the stages of the Borscht Belt in its heyday and end up with a very successful Broadway show called The World According to Me. With his usual focus on the differences between Jews and Gentiles, plus plenty of political observations, Mason’s show took off in 1987 for a two-year run. Following that show, 113
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Mason would land on Broadway with seven more original one-man shows over the next 20 years, making him the most successful comic crossover to the Broadway stage.
Whether it was Robert Klein moving from the Catskills to the hit show They’re Playing Our Song, or Mel Brooks bringing The Producers to Broadway many years later, a number of the funnymen who would write, produce and/or perform on the Broadway stages worked in the Catskills.
Some started by literally working at the hotels, as busboys or in similar jobs to learn the lay of the land. But, no matter how they began, they worked hard and benefited from audiences that became tougher to please.
As their expectations for excellence increased, Catskills audiences, much like Broadway audiences, became more discerning as one comic raised the bar for the following night’s performer.
Unfortunately, as more destination resorts emerged, faster air travel made long-distance locations more easily accessible, and the casinos in nearby Atlantic City became the lure for New York City vacationers. As a result, the resorts in the Catskills began a decline that by the end of the century left them almost completely obliterated.
In late 1991, however, one of the remaining Catskills funnymen, Freddie Roman, would bring a show to Broadway celebrating the humor of the Borscht Belt. In essence it was nothing more than four comics doing what they did best in the mountains: stand up comedy. The show, Catskills on Broadway, featured Mal Z. Lawrence, Marilyn Michaels, Dick Capri and of course Roman, all of whom spent years making audiences laugh on the stages of Catskills resorts. It ran for 452 performances and at one point even brought long-time legendary funnyman Henny Youngman to the Broadway stage for a stint in the show.
On a Serious Note
While the blockbuster musicals of the ’50s drew a lot of attention and the comedians of Broadway’s future were honing their skills in the Catskill mountain resorts, there were also several key dramatic works.
Along with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, one of the most significant dramatic works of the time was The Diary of Anne Frank. The epic dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett was based upon the 114
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actual published diary of a young woman who hid seven Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II.
The Tony Award–winning play of 1956, which opened at the Cort Theater and later moved to the Ambassador, ran for 717 performances.
It featured Susan Strasberg, who was nominated for a Tony Award, and was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden, who received his third Tony Award for his work (he had also received Tony Awards for Death of a Sales man and The Crucible.) He would go on to win a fourth Tony Award for The Music Man.
Unlike many of the Jewish writers and performers who disappointed their parents by venturing into the unstable world of theater, Susan Strasberg, daughter of acting teacher Lee Strasberg and former actress Paula Strasberg, was encouraged to go against her dreams of becoming a scien -
tist and venture into acting. Born in 1938, Susan did not attend classes at her father’s Actors Studio, but instead ventured into acting as a teenager, first in an Off Broadway production called Maya, then on television before emerging on Broadway as the star of the Pulitzer Prize–winning drama, The Diary of Anne Frank. At just 17, Susan Strasberg’s career had instantly taken off. From this auspicious beginning, she went to Hollywood where she made several movies, returning in 1957 to appear in the Broadway show Time Remembered, with Richard Burton, with whom she had a well-publicized affair. Unfortunately, her career may have taken off too soon, as she never again enjoyed her early success on screen or on stage, although she did generate some acclaim during a few years in Italy.
Another of the most significant dramas of the 1950s was Inherit the Wind, written by Jerome Lawrence with Robert E. Lee, and starring Paul Muni. Another Jewish performer to emanate from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Muni had appeared on Broadway in This One Man, Counselor-at-Law and A Flag Is Born, among other shows. However, he was would win a Tony Award for Inherit the Wind, the 1955 drama about the Scopes Monkey Trial, which took place in the 1920s. The trial brought national attention to the conflict between those teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution, which included a schoolteacher who was arrested in Ten-nessee, and those who believed in the fundamental teaching of the Bible.
Not unlike Miller’s hit The Crucible, the play was brought to the stage largely to focus on the threat against intellectual freedom as posed by the 115
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Communist investigations by McCarthy and the Senate subcommittee.
Lawrence commented in an interview that “It’s not about science versus religion. It’s about the right to think.”3
Along with Robert E. Lee, Jerome Lawrence wrote 39 plays in 15
years, a dozen of which made it to Broadway. Born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz, like many other celebrities, he changed his name, or in this case simply dropped the Jewish sounding “Schwartz” in order to appear less ethnic. After working as a reporter for small newspapers, he began writing for radio, including Armed Forces radio during World War II.
Lawrence and Lee both entered the military in 1942 and served their country together. Together they followed Inherit the Wind with Auntie Mame, which became the musical hit Mame, in the mid–’60s, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, about Thoreau’s imprisonment for tax evasion based on moral reasons and First Monday in October.
And Through It All
The Cold War prevailed throughout the 1950s and into the ’60s, but the intensity of the anti–Communism fervor began to erode. For years, however, the debate went on regarding those who spoke out and named names of Communist sympathizers. Were they being patriotic or were they ratting out their peers? I have found that those who took a side were adamant about their position. Today, the blacklisting is a footnote in history. At the time, however, it affected (and in some cases ruined) the careers of many people in show business, including a significant number of Jewish playwrights and performers.
And through it all, the indomitable spirit and positive attitude of the Jews in theater prevailed. Zero Mostel, among others, stepped back into the spotlight and worked hard to prove that he belonged onstage and not on a blacklist. In fact, Mostel teamed with Woody Allen and Her schel Bernardi (another Jewish performer who was blacklisted) to appear in the 1976 film, The Front, about the anti–Communism crusades and subsequent blacklisting.
While off-stage news regarding who was being grilled by a subcommittee made newspaper headlines, the theater world was making headlines of its own. The Broadway musicals of the 1950s were among the 116
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most extraordinary ever produced, and even before they became major motion pictures, these shows were generating attention, not only around the theater district but also well beyond the city borders. While New York City is always a major tourist destination, these were shows that people traveled to see, which was part of the reason for extended record-breaking runs.
In the meantime, while tourists were flocking to Broadway, the Cat -
skills was the vacation spot to which the New York Jews could escape.
They were also the only comedy training ground of their kind. I can attest to the popularity of the area from my own visits. But I can also attest to the genius of one of the many comedic geniuses who emerged, Sid Caesar, whom I saw on stage in Little Me on my first-ever trip to see a Broadway musical. Like the many young future performers who sat watching Yiddish theater, or Fanny Brice during the days of vaudeville, I sat watching Caesar in awe.
As I describ
ed it in my book Let’s Put On a Show:
My love affair with the theater started when I was invited to see my first Broadway show. I was eleven at the time, and the father of my best friend, Ricky, was an actor. I had never heard of him so I never thought much about it (except it was kind of cool that he worked at night, when it was fun, and not like everyone else who worked during the day). We drove from Long Island into the City, which alone was an exciting event in itself, and everything kept snowballing from there. Seeing my first beautiful Broadway theatre, getting a ticket with the name of the show printed on it (not just “Admit One” that you’d get at the movie houses), being handed a Playbill (two souvenirs and the curtain wasn’t even up yet!) and quickly being ushered into the first row in front of a huge, plush crimson curtain. The Overture began and my mouth dropped open. The curtain rose and my eyes popped at what they saw. Indeed, Ricky’s father, Sid Caesar was starring in the musical Little Me, with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. The audience roared with laughter and, because we were in the front row, I could see some behind the scenes preparation by the actors in the wings. I was now an insider (and after only five minutes). Afterwards we went backstage where Sid was holding court. There were so many well wishers and plenty of backslapping, and hugging going on. So much laughter on stage and off, I thought. With a refrigerator, bed, T.V., and hot plate, this place was like a home away from home. My heavens, why would anyone want to do anything else?4
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While I went on to see many more plays during the 1960s, the Broad way theater would begin to change. New and innovative shows were produced, some for better and some for worse. But there was also a coming of age, of sorts, for the presentation of Jewish family life, culture, and history on the Broadway stage. Fiddler on the Roof was the most notable of several shows that touched on Jewish life and extended the culture to a new generation of young theatergoers. It was a show that I saw in my youth and produced many years later, realizing that my own daughters had not seen it. Like so many Jewish people, I felt connected to the show and wanted to pass on its great tradition.
The next chapter looks at the Jewish-themed shows, as well as the new breed of performers, writer and directors who continued the tradition, and the influence of the Jewish people on Broadway throughout the 1960s and ’70s.
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6
Jewish Themes, Legends and
Life in the 1960s and 1970s
With The Sound of Music soaring high on theatergoers’ must-see list, the 1960s began. It was a decade that would have a tremendous impact upon American culture and politics. From the Bay of Pigs to the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the rise of the Beatles, the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam and man finally walking on the moon, the ’60s was a decade unlike any in America’s short history.
Theater, of course, would follow suit with a wide range of subject matter presented in new and innovative manners, many of which were experimental in nature, echoing the changing American culture. African American performers, who were not even cast in Broadway shows just a few decades earlier, were finally getting their long-overdue opportunity to star in major productions. It was also a welcome change from a Jewish cultural perspective. Not only were there Jewish playwrights, composers, lyricists and performers, but audiences were also enjoying full-blown musicals about the Jewish people. The fears of anti–Semitism and Communism had dissipated, giving way to new shows that brought the Jewish people to the forefront, not as stereotypes as in the days of vaudeville, but as prominent individuals and as families with their own joys, concerns and struggles.
Fiddler on the Roof
It’s hard to argue that the most defining, and certainly most successful, musical about the Jewish family was Fiddler on the Roof, rich in 119
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Jewish tradition and culture. Considered by some to be the last great musi cal of the golden era that extended from the early 1950s into the mid– ’60s, it was a monumental show that broke box office records, as it became the first musical to surpass 3,000 Broadway performances.
However, Fiddler was more than just a mega hit musical. It became a part of American Jewish culture, quoted by religious leaders and discussed in Jewish households. While the show focused on Jewish life, the idea that progress intrudes upon tradition also resounded with mainstream audiences. In fact, Fiddler was later presented in Japan where it was once again a hit, largely because of the theme ... tradition! The songs from Fiddler were ingrained in the minds of those who saw it and even many of those who did not. Even more than 25 years later, Jason Alexander would inappropriately break into “If I Were a Rich Man” while playing George Castanza in an episode of Seinfeld in which George and Jerry come face to face with a Nazi husband and wife. Fiddler also provided a history lesson of sorts about life in Russia for the Jewish people at the beginning of the 20th century.
Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick provided the music and lyrics for Fiddler. Bock was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1928 but grew up in Flushing, Queens. He cultivated an interest in music as a young -
ster, writing his first musical comedies in high school and college. A college musical that Bock co-wrote with a school friend, Larry Holofcener, called Big as Life, was awarded the top prize in a show competition between colleges sponsored by BMI, one of the major music licensing houses.
After graduating, Bock and Holofcener would make their way into television, becoming the musical writers for Your Show of Shows before moving on to Broadway with contributions to a show called Catch a Star!
Their songs drew attention and they were hired to write the music and lyrics for the show Mr. Wonderful and for the 1956 version of Zieg feld Follies.
By the end of the ’50s, Bock and Holofcener had gone their separate ways. Bock began teaming up with another Jewish lyricist, Sidney Harnick, who was looking for his first big break. A native of Chicago, Harnick took to the violin as a youngster. After a stint in the army, he earned a bachelor of music degree in 1949 from the Northwestern University School of Music. Wanting to take a shot at writing lyrics for the theater, 120
6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s he headed to New York City where he landed a witty song in Broadway’s New Faces of 1952. For the next several years, Harnick contributed lyrics to other people’s shows before joining up with Jerry Bock.
Following an unsuccessful first show, The Body Beautiful, they had their first collaborative hit, celebrating the life of New York City Mayor, Fiorello La Guardia. The show, Fiorello! , ushered in the 1960s at the Broad hurst Theater with a run of 795 performances and earned them a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize. A few more collaborations followed over the next several years, none matching the success of Fiorello!. And then came Fiddler.
Based on stories written in Yiddish by Jewish writer Sholom Aleichem, including one entitled Tevye and His Daughters, the book evolved through the hard work of librettist Joseph Stein, who had started his career as a television writer before moving to theater. Stein had previously teamed with Carl Reiner on the hit comedy Enter Laughing, which had an all-star cast including José Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford and even legendary comedian Don Rickles. For Fiddler, Stein would win two Tony Awards. He would also win Tonys for collaborating on the book Take Me Along, as well as for Zorba and for Rags.
While Bock and Harnish were handling the music and lyrics for Fiddler, and Stein was writing the book, Harold Prince served as producer and brought in Jerome Robbins, whom he felt was the only director who could give the material the universal quality necessary to play successfully for the mass audience.
When Fiddler finally hit the stage, it rang true to the concerns of the broad audience, while having a special significance for Jewish theatergoers. The show focused on a dairyman living with his wife in Russia just after the turn of the 20th century and how he tried to cling to the old-world religious and family custom
s and traditions while raising five daughters in a world that was rapidly changing around them. The show ran, appropriately, through the 1960s, in which, as mentioned at the open ing of the chapter, social and political changes were challenging long-standing family and cultural traditions in America. The roles of women were changing, the war overseas in Vietnam was not attracting the same patriotic spirit of World War II, a sexual revolution was emerging and typically rebellious youths were now uniting as part of the anti-culture known as the hippie culture. Traditions were indeed hard to cling 121
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to. Jewish families were also dealing with a growing trend of interfaith marriages and changes in traditional home life. As the suburbs grew quickly, TV dinners, television, and other diversions were slowly replacing the Sabbath family meal, and fewer Jews were attending Friday night or Saturday morning temple services. Even Jewish traditions themselves were being questioned by the new generation of young Jews. As a result, Fiddler hit home, touching the hearts of theatergoers.
As is the case with many blockbuster musicals, Fiddler went through a number of changes en route to Broadway. The name changed several times until Fiddler on the Roof was pulled from a Chagall painting called The Green Violinist, which depicted a violinist hovering over the roofs of a village. The stars of Fiddler included Zero Mostel, who reportedly was not the first choice of Robbins. Initially Robbins wanted Danny Kaye. In the end, however, Mostel would take ownership of the role and walk away with a Tony Award for his work. Luther Adler and Herschel Ber nardi were among several others to take over the starring role of Tevye dur ing the long run. Bea Arthur, Bette Midler and Pia Zadora were among a number of actresses to take on some of the many significant female roles.