Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1990-10-18

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The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
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'  , Volume 68
NUMBER 43
OCTOBER 18,1990
T1SHR127.5751
DEVOTED   TO   AMLR1CAN   AND   JEWISH   IDEALS
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LETTER FROM BROADWAY
'Grand Hotel* is Broadway musical
at its loftiest
By Vivian Kramer Fancher
The long.running Grand-
Hotel is stUl playing to sold
out performances. Here is
the genre of the Broadway
musical at its loftiest. Entertain, it does, as this medium
was meant to, but more in
the style of contemporary
opera than Hollywood '30s
films. Directed and choreographed by the incomparable Tommy Tune, the show
moves briskly non-stop
(without an intermission)
for two exhilarating hours on
the well conceived one set
stage.
The theater resonates with
the zietgeist of pre-Nazi Berlin including oppressed
workers of inflation racked
Germany, self-indulgent
aristocrats and pretentious
bourgeoisie. The stock characters, an aging ballerina, a
penniless baron, a dishonest
businessman, an ambitious
typist, a cynical physician,
etc. could easily have been
portrayed in a totally stereotypical fashion. But given
ttie fine writing, acting and
direction they are f idly realized personalities, both
complex and sympathetic.
And though some of them behave in greedy or narcissistic ways, there is only one
villain, a chaffeur, who acts
on behalf of an evil and mysterious third party.     T
Two of the play's most
honorable protagonists are
Jews. Otto Kringelein, the'
self-effacing bookkeeper, reminded me of the LL. (Yot-
shak Leib) Peretz character,
Bontche Schweig. I won't,
.spoil the ending by telling
you how the bookkeeper is
rewarded. But I will hint that
more than a hot roll and butter, which is what Peretz's
saintly soul asked for when
entering heaven, is in store
for Kringelein. We don't
learn the identity of the other
Jew, someone whose personality bespeaks of total loyalty, until the end when he utters "mazel tov," which is
something I felt like saying
to everyone associated with
the show.
The newly staged version
of The Rothschilds is a revival that should also please
audiences. When I read the
book of the same name writ-
ten_by Frederic Morton, I
thoroughly enjoyed learning
the history of this unusual
family. However, when I
saw tiie original Broadway
version of the musical, perhaps some 20 years ago, I
found it to be less entertaining than I expected.       ■-—
However, the 1990 conception of the tale completely
delights. His scaled down
and produced off-Broadway
at the Circle in the Square, a
theater in the round, which
provides the performance
the hiemish quality that it requires. Lyrics and music by
a pair of Broadway's top
tunesmiths, Sheldon Harnick
and Jerry Bock, are poignant and melodic. The absence of a full orchestra —
there are two pianists at dual
keyboards — does not detract from the score. Mike
Burstyn plays the patriarch,
Mayer Rothschild, with dignity and warmth, and the
rest of the cast does an admirable job, too.
There is a powerful message in this story. One fully
experiences what it feels like
to be a Jew, an outsider, in
Europe a few centuries ago.
the show's theme is not
about changing one's social
status or amassing a fortune. It is rather about using
one's good standing and
wealth to help one's fellow
men. The Rothschilds persistently pressured the nobility of Europe to lift the restrictions placed on their religious compatriots. Mayer's
five sons prevailed.
Other People's Money is
another long running off-
Broadway hit and a work
that may well be the definitive description of the past
decade. Bronx born Lawrence (Larry the Liquidator)
Garfinkle makes his living
by searching out undervalued companies, taking
them over and liquidating
them for a quick profit. His
latest target is the New England Cable Wire and Company, a small family-run and
closely held business that's
traded over the counter. Andrew (Jorgy) Jorgenson and
his assistant, Bea Sullivan,
both in their 70s' have been
involved for decades in running the firm, which was
started by his father. The
five-character drama includes Bill Coles, an employee who is waiting to take
over from Jorgy, and Bea's
daughter, Kate,'a lawyer at
See BROADWAY pg. 11
in
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