The Immigrant: Deep in the Heart of Tsores

Long before The Jewish State of Israel was a serious consideration, there was the possibility we could have wound up with The Jewish State of Texas. Yup. Imagine the Lone Star with six points and Woody Allen with an entirely new fan base.

By 1907 the enormous influx of Eastern European Jews arriving in New York, mostly those escaping the pogroms, caused the Lower East Side of Manhattan to become one of the world's most densely populated slums. In an attempt to remedy this problem, Jewish-American investment banker Jacob Schiff created The Galveston Plan. The idea was to encourage Jews to enter America via Galveston, Texas, where they'd be given the opportunity to start a new life through farming settlements. The plan met with little success as only 10,000 Jews made the trip through the Gulf of Mexico in the years from 1907-1914.

But one of them who did venture out to the prairie was Haskell Harelik, whose trail from fruit peddler to successful businessman was documented in his grandson Mark Harelik's straight play, The Immigrant. That play now has a namesake four character musical, with a book by Harelik, music by Steven M. Alper and lyrics by Sarah Knapp.

It's 1909 and Haskell Harelik (Adam Heller) is pulling his fruit cart door to door through the farmlands of Hamilton, Texas doing his best to sell bananas. Since he apparently knows only a few words of English I imagine he's been having a rather tough go at it. With a combination of Yiddish and pantomime he convinces Southern Baptist Ima Perry (Cass Morgan) and her non-religious banker husband Milton (Walter Charles) to allow him to get a drink of water from their well. Pressing his luck, Harelik uses that "happy old-world charm" to convince them to let him pay for a shower and a bed for the night. Though the bigoted banker is suspicious of the foreigner, his religious wife believes in being charitable and Harelik becomes a permanent fixture in their spare room. Impressed with his work ethic, if not his heritage, Milton offers him a bank loan to set up his own business and Herelick is soon able to send for his wife Leah (Jacqueline Antaramian). Though Leah initially rejects her husband's new American ways, she adjusts. They have three kids and everybody grows old. That's the plot. I'm leaving out a couple of details about the ending, but that's pretty much it.

I suppose Hamilton is one of those towns where nothing much happens. And although many a successful theatre piece can hold your interest with themes instead of a plot, there's little of that here either. Conflicts are resolved immediately or completely disregarded after a blackout. There's the obligatory "town folks destroy the Jew's property" scene early in Act I, but nothing comes of it. There's an argument regarding the rise of Hitler in Act II, but the war's over by the next scene. Act I ends with Leah upset that her husband seems to be giving up part of their culture in order to succeed in America, but she has a change of heart after chopping vegetables with Ima very shortly after the intermission. There's an interminably long scene spanning several years where Leah gives birth to three sons. (In The Rothschilds Bock and Harnick manage to have five sons born in three and a half minutes.) Shortly before the final blackout, Ima has a big solo about a topic that hasn't been touched upon all night. There's no indication as to what this musical is supposed to be about.

And unfortunately the score doesn't help much. Alper's music combines Eastern European rhythms with a dissonant contemporary sound which adds up to something akin to minimalist klezmer. There seems to be little attempt to differentiate between each character's musical language, which would be appropriate in a show about culture clashes, and the redundancy of the score is tiresome. Knapp's lyrics are overly simple and repetitive. ("We don't see eye to eye, I guess. / That's why we ended up in this mess. / We're different. / We see the world in a different way. / Wouldn't you say?") Her ballads are filled with cliche' imagery involving stars, freedom, homeland, etc., and are stagnantly staged by director Randal Myler. By Act II it seems like the purpose of each solo is to give the other actors a chance to apply aging makeup.

The cast does what they can with material that does little to test their acting capabilities or musical prowess. Adam Heller spends much of the show wearing a pixie-ish grin, contrasting with Walter Charles' continuous scowl. Cass Morgan perfects a sweet charitable look while Jacqueline Antaramian gets to show a little versatility, going from frightened immigrant to secure housewife. It's not their fault.

The best work of the evening comes from lighting designer Don Darnutzer, who colors set designer Brian Webb's beautiful landscape backdrop with a lovely assortment of horizons. Willa Kim contributes some nice period costumes.

Before coming to New York, The Immigrant played its premiere engagement in Denver, Colorado; the same city where Brooklyn, the Musical made its pre-Broadway debut. Denver -- you're a lovely and historic city filled with very nice people. But I'm begging you... please... stop sending us your musicals.

Photos by Carol Rosegg
Top: Adam Heller, Middle: Adam Heller and Jacqueline Antaramian, Bottom: Walter Charles and Cass Morgan

For more information, visit theimmigrantmusical.com

For more from Michael Dale visit dry2olives.com