After being presented by John Schaefer and WNYC's New Sounds Live at the Merkin Concert Hall, and then traveling the world, the iconoclastic post-modern musical oratorio, "A Night at the Old Marketplace," returns to New York for the premiere of an enhanced full-length version fusing music, projections and storytelling. Presented by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Thursday May 4, at 8pm, and Saturday May 6, at 9:30pm, "A Night at the Old Marketplace" is co-created by the director-producer Alexandra Aron, the Grammy-winning composer Frank London of The Klezmatics, and the award-winning playwright Glen Berger. The 90-minute performance is narrated by the legendary Downtown performer, Edgar Oliver.
A hallucinatory reinvention of Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz's equally phantasmagoric verse play "Bay Nakht Oyfn Altn Mark" (first staged in 1907), this two-night-only phenomenon spans an eclectic range of musical styles -- from rock to jazz to klezmer. With a text and lyrics by Berger, and composed by the recently knighted London, "A Night in the Old Marketplace" is directed by Aron. Though performed in English, the adapted story is pure Yiddish -- a wild ride through a fun house of mystical theology, blurred identity, and dangerous transgressions with vaudevillian overtones.
In "A Night in the Old Marketplace" a deranged but mostly well-intentioned badkhn -- a traditional Jewish wedding jester -- tries to rescue a despondent bride pledged to a much older man, so that she can unite with her true love. Despite the fact that she is dead and her true love is ruining his life with drink, a happy ending may be at hand... that is if G-d can be outsmarted and the world turned upside down.
The show's eclectic cast of singer-performers:
Manu Narayan (from Broadway's "Bombay Dreams," and
Mike Myers' "Love Guru");
Charlotte Cohn ("La Boheme" on Broadway, "Handle with Care" Off-Broadway); the internationally acclaimed Latin-jazz singer Sofia Rei; Trinity Church's featured bass soloist Steven Hrycelak, and the world's most in-demand Yiddish singer -- the voice of
The Klezmatics,
Lorin Sklamberg.
The avant-traditional Marketplace Band brings together some of New York's premiere ethno-punk virtuosi: tubist Ron Caswell (Slavic Soul Party), guitar shredder Brandon Seabrook ("an apocalyptic, supersonic general of the banjo" according to Spin Magazine), klezmer drum master Aaron Alexander, Brazilian accordion wizard Rob Curto.
The mind-shifting projected video is by Kate Howard, Tine Kindermann, Mornography, and Asa Movshovitz.
First presented live from Merkin Hall on WNYC's New Sounds, the unique theatrical concert has been performed in Warsaw, São Paulo, Toronto, Milan, and Copenhagen. An earlier version was seen in New York in 2006. It was recorded by Soundbrush Records in 2009, including vocals by They Might Be Giants. (Peretz's folktale is also the inspiration for
Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride.")
Knighted for his work in Jewish music and culture, composer and trumpeter Sir
Frank London has popularized klezmer music worldwide in concerts and recordings, most notably with
The Klezmatics, of which he is a co-founder. He leads the Astro-Hungarian supergroup Glass House Orchestra; the Shekhinah Big Band; his Klezmer Brass Allstars; the bhangra/Yiddish group Sharabi (which he co-leads with
Deep Singh); Ahava Raba (with Cantor Yanky Lemmer &
Michael Winograd); and Vilde Mekhaye (with
Eleanor Reissa). His Cuban-Yiddish opera "Hatuey Memory of Fire" (with
Elise Thoron) premiered in Havana in 2017. All About Jazz has called him the "mystical high priest of New Wave Avant-Klez jazz."
Glen Berger has written plays, such as the award-winning "Underneath the Lintel" (over 300 productions worldwide); musicals (including "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" with music by Bono and the Edge), and has written over 150 episodes of television for children (Arthur, Curious George, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, among others), winning two Emmys.
Alexandra Aron, the executive producer of The Remote Theater Project, has directed dozens of new works, including plays by Deb Margolin,
Murray Schisgal,
Glen Berger, and
Carmen Rivera. In New York her work has been seen New Georges Theatre, Repertorio Español, EST, Actor's Studio, La MaMa, and
Primary Stages, among others.
The Drama Desk-winning National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (
Chris Massimine executive producer,
Zalmen Mlotek artistic director), now in its 103rd consecutive season, brings a rich cultural heritage to life on stage -- one that was nearly destroyed some 80 years ago. Now from its home at the Museum of Jewish heritage, NYTF continues to present relevant, innovative and impactful programming to more than 100,000 attendees annually, in over 100 events-a-year. Through mainstage productions, reading series, concerts, education and outreach programs NYTF leads the forefront of bridging Jewish cultural legacy, continuity and identity with multicultural audiences from around the world.
"A Night in the Old Marketplace," inspired by I.L. Peretz's theological ghost story about an insane badkhn's battle with G-d, will be heard and seen for two performances only -- Thursday May 4, at 8pm and on Saturday May 6, at 9:30pm -- at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place. The running time is 90 minutes. Tickets, which are $30, may be purchased by phone at
212-213-2120, or online at
www.nytf.org.
