Folksbiene's breakaway hit, "The Adventures of Hershele Ostropolyer," one of the best-reviewed shows of 2009-2010 season, returns for a special encore engagement this spring. Starring Mike Burstyn as a Jewish Robin Hood, and directed, adapted and choreographed by the Tony Award-nominated director Eleanor Reissa, this family friendly musical based on a Yiddish folktale was called "a treat" by Jewish Press and "delightful in any language" by TheaterMania.com. The show's five-week Off-Broadway engagement runs from May 15 to June 26 at The Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue (at 25th Street). ("Hershele" opened on June 3, 2010. The "opening" for media outlets that missed "Hershele" the first time around or for re-review, will be Sunday May 22 at 6pm.) For tickets call 866-811-4111, or visit www.folksbiene.org
"Hershele" is performed entirely in Yiddish, with English and Russian supertitles. In her review in The Forward, Masha Leon said, "The supertitles are so good non-Yiddish speakers will - between belly laughs - assume they actually understand mameloshn."
Based on the classic Yiddish play by Moyshe Gershenson, the show's original score features a sumptuous mosaic of rare and well-known Yiddish theatre and folk songs compiled by the Yiddish musicologist
Chana Mlotek.
Zalmen Mlotek, Ms. Mloteks's son, is the show's music director, and is responsible for the arrangements). The show's 4-piece klezmer band features the emerging clarinetist Dmitri Slepovitch.
In this rollicking musical comedy, the beloved folk hero Hershele Ostropolyer battles injustice armed with only his wits. Ever resourceful, Hershele mobilizes an entire community to thwart the wicked designs of the town's leading citizen, the miserly Reb Kalmen.
Burstyn, who heads a cast of 9, is a two-time Kinor David-winner (Israel's Oscar). He starred in Folksbiene's widely acclaimed hit musical revue "On Second Avenue" for which he earned a 2006 best actor in a musical Drama Desk nomination. A scion of Yiddish theatre royalty, Burstyn grew up performing in Yiddish with his famous parents
Pesach Burstein and
Lillian Lux and his sister Susan. He starred on Broadway in "Barnum" and "Ain't Broadway Grand," Off-Broadway in "The Rothschilds" (Drama Desk nomination) and in the national tour of "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" (with
Valerie Harper). Reissa, a singer and actress (title role in Folksbiene's critically acclaimed "Yentl"), was nominated for a Tony Award as the director of "Those Were the Days".
"The Adventures of Hershele Ostropolyer" performs at the 220-seat Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenues) from May 15 to June 26. The schedule, with some variation, is as follows: Tuesdays at 2pm; Wednesdays at 2pm & 7:30pm; Thursdays at 2pm & 7:30pm, and Sundays at 2pm & 6pm. There are no performances from June 6 to 12. There are no performances on Tuesdays June 14 and 21 on weeks when special Saturday 10pm performances are added on June 18 and 25. For tickets, which are $55, call The Baruch Performing Arts Center box office at 646/312-5073, or visit www.folksbiene.org
Now in its historic 96h consecutive season, The National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene, presents plays in English and Yiddish that either preserve the great legacy of the Yiddish theatre or add to it. In the past 11 seasons, 12 out of 15 mainstage productions have either been new works or first-time adaptations.
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