Theater Review:
Yiddish Theater At Its Best:
Folksbiene’s On Second Avenue
By Jan Aaron
Crave a sip
of chicken soup for the soul? Dine out on the nostalgia-flavored
review, On the Second Avenue. The
Folksbiene Yiddish Theater’s surprise hit last spring,
has reopened at the JCC (76th and Amsterdam) through January
1. The show transports you back to the heyday of the Yiddish
theater in New York, between 1890 and 1910, when Second Avenue
was the Yiddish Broadway boasting a dozen theaters between
Houston and 12th Street.
Six terrific performers share almost equal time telling the history of
the Yiddish theater through two hours of music, dance and
monologues. They’re backed by the zippy Folksbiene
Klezmer Band. The show’s most well known performer
Mike Burstyn, shines brightest. The son of Yiddish theater
royalty, Pesache-ke, Burstein and Lillian Lux, he grew knowing
this stuff and presents every gesture and inflection with
impish humor and in fine voice. In a poignant peek at his
own past Burstyn, wearing a serape and sombrero, sings “Galitsyaner
Cavelero,” a song made famous by his dad (shown on
a video clip) about a Polish Jew who lands in Mexico instead
of America.
Joanne Borts,
Lisa Fishman, Elan Kunin, Lisa Rubin, Rebecca Brudner and Robert
Abelson join him in giving their utmost, each adding moving
moments. There
are songs about yearning for the old country (“Shtetyl
Montage”) and a play about a fallen woman in the new
world (“Satin and Silk”), vaudeville tunes proclaiming “We’re
not archaic, we’re from Passaic,” and moving moments
like the Hebrew lesson, “In Kheyder.” For the Yiddish
challenged, there are supertitles and translated songs. As
in the old days, the audience can get in the act. At my performance,
they clapped with the music and anticipated the punch lines
before they were delivered.
Created
by Moishe Rosenfeld and Zalmen Mlotek, and directed by Bryna
Wasserman, the show is produced in association with the Dora
Wasserman Yiddish Theater of Montreal. The set, designed
by J.C. Olivier, recalls the colonnaded sets of old vaudeville
theaters and the jokes go way back too. “Doctor, doctor, it hurts
here and here and here,” says the patient. To tell the
punch line would ruin the joke. Go see for yourself. Enjoy!
(334 Amsterdam Ave. Tickets $37.50-$47.50; 212-239-6200 or
www.folksbiene.org)#
