Anyone else excited to see this documentary? It's supposed to air tomorrow
Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy – narrated by Joel Grey — explores the unique role of Jewish composers and lyricists in the creation of the modern American musical. Featuring interviews and conversations with some of the greatest composers and writers of the Broadway stage, Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy showcases the work of some of the nation’s pre-eminent creators of musical theatre including Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Kurt Weill, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Bock, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Jule Styne and many others.
Though these remarkable songwriters were purveyors of what we think of today as the Broadway sound, the documentary demonstrates how there were echoes of Jewish strains in many of the works. From “Yiddishkeit” (all things Jewish) on the stages of the Lower East Side at the turn of the century to a wide range of shows including Porgy and Bess, West Side Story and Cabaret, the film explores how Jewish music and ethos informs many of America’s favorite musicals.
Dynamic footage includes performances by stars such as David Hyde Pierce (Spamalot), Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara (Nice Work if You Can Get It), Zero Mostel (Fiddler on the Roof), Betty Comden and Adolph Green (On the Town), Nathan Lane (The Producers), Al Jolson (Sinbad), Fanny Brice (The Great Ziegfeld), Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl), Joel Grey (Cabaret), Dick Van Dyke (Bye Bye Birdie), Danny Kaye (Lady in the Dark), Ethel Merman (Gypsy), and Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel (Wicked).
Sounds very good and I will watch, but the idea that Jews were absolutely central to the creation of the Broadway musical is not new. When Cole Porter (a rich WASP from Indiana) was young and not achieving the success he thought he deserved, he asked Jerome Kern what he should do? Kern replied, "Write more Jewish." (Porter responded by imitating the Muslim call to prayer in "Begin the Beguine". Close enough, apparently.)
It's the minor keys and intervals employed by Jewish cantors that became the basis for the "Broadway sound."
Add African-American rhythm and dance, Irish, Jewish and German comics, and homosexual designers and performers, and voila! You get the brand new theater form which wasn't so much new as a new mix.
I'm certainly familiar with minor key Jewish liturgical melodies. I'm trying to think of how they influenced Broadway except for the obvious show: "Fiddler on the Roof," whose "Sabbath Prayer" is sometimes sung as part of Shabbat services -- life imitates art. The one song that many people, apparently mistakenly, think is Jewish in origin is "Those were the Days, my Friend," but I don't think that's a Broadway song.
"My Fair Lady," "The Sound of Music," "The King and I," "Camelot" -- I just can't see the musical connections to Solomon Sulzer and the other great 19th century cantorial composers or to Israeli music. I'm sorry I missed the documentary, because I'm sure it sets out the connection.
I may not be explaining the musicology well enough, as I am not a musician.
But compare George M. Cohan to Jerome Kern (and then Rodgers, Gershwin and eventually Porter (not Jewish but influenced by the sound)) and the distinction is pretty obvious.
Somewhat superficial at a lightning-paced 90 minutes, but loved every minute of it!
It may not have occurred to me had I not just watched the Lincoln Center/PBS Marvin Hamlisch fiasco last night, but odd that this doc skipped over Hamlisch/Chorus Line completely.
Good documentary -- that Strouse story was very troubling, however -- but I would have liked at least a mention of those who do not immediately come to mind, such as Leo Robin, Burton Lane, Dietz & Schwartz, Bacharach/David, Mitch Leigh, Alan Menken and so on. Let people know there's more to the story than R&H, Berlin and Sondheim. Nonetheless, a very enjoyable 90 minutes.
I found it interesting that they only came up with Cole Porter as the lone non jewish composer (most likely because he longed to make is music sound jewish). Meredith Wilson, would have been another example from the pre-Hair heydays.
It is interesting that after the infusion and success of non jewish composers on broadway that until recently almost all were non american, Galt MacDermott, ALW, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Elton John, Eric Idle.
Recently we have seen success from american composers Robert Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Found this to be really fascinating, and wonderful. A lot I already knew, but so much I hadn't actually put together in my mind. Hearing how so many songs developed from klezmer - ACTUALLY hearing it - blew my mind. I guess I'd known, but never really actually put it together.
I also found it interesting that sexuality was not discussed in the program at all. As Laurence O'Keefe wrote in Legally Blonde, "They're gay and european" or as Marc Shaiman more succinctly put it in "Big Black Lady Stops the Show":
"Now will somebody please explain Why whether gospel or some blues These songs are always written By some old fart white gay Jews"
Every so often, years apart, I start a thread dealing with the common conception that theatre is inherently gay and inherently Jewish, and allowing debate to unpack and deconstruct- or support and explain- these cultural assumptions. This has added huge evidence and support to te claim that musical theatre is, or at least was, inherently Jewish. So now the question remains: is the theatre gay? How? Why?
darquegk: The show focused on the creative side of the equation. They only touched on another major issue tangentially, financial backing in relation to two shows, "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Cabaret", but only in relation to how they effected the creative process. The fact is that a large portion of the whole industry, producers and the financial backers behind them, theater owners, agents, directors, critics, and to a much lesser extent now performers... are jewish.
I was a little disappointed that after a good discussion of Irving Berlin and other turn-of-the-20th-century immigrants, the piece just became a laundry list of Jewish writers until it got to FIDDLER and, later, Stephen Sondheim. (Fortunately the doc did a much better job of explaining Jewish music and its relationship to the blues than I did above!)
There are distinct differences between the "Second Hand Rose" songs of Fannie Brice et al., the idealistic assimilation of R&H ("Brand new state/Gonna treat you great!") and the chest-thumping of Laurents and Herman ("*I* Am What *I* Am"). There were brief references to the idea that American Jews were themselves changing, but this got short shrift, imo.
Great documentary. I learned a lot! Loved hearing Laurents tell the Passover Seder story about Merman and her ham sandwich. Classic. Priceless. Also.. the irony surrounding the work of Irving Berlin never hit me until this documentary. The best-selling Christmas song of all time ("White Christmas") was written by a Jew. The most popular secular Easter song of all time ("Easter Parade") was written by a Jew. He was and is the greatest American songwriter of all time.
My DVR says there's an encore performance this morning (at 2am I believe).
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joined:7/15/08
Posted: 12/31/12 at 07:33pm