| Oklahoma Jewish | |
| Posted by: aleck 03:38 pm EDT 08/31/19 | |
| In reply to: re: I apologize. - Chromolume 12:29 pm EDT 08/31/19 | |
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| That there is a long and historically well-established special relationship between the Jewish community and the theatre is no question -- on both sides of the footlights. Entire books have been written on the subject and it need not be thrashed out here. However, within the Oklahoma story -- by that I mean the musical -- it is kind of interesting. My Jewish friend last night zeroed in immediately on the peddlar character as being a representation of a stereotyped comic Jewish character. Indeed, in the original production the first actor to play that role was a well-known actor from the Yiddish theatre. (In the original source play for this musical, Green Grow the Lilacs, the role of the peddler was played by Lee Strasberg, who is and was widely known to be Jewish.) Now, I don't know if either of these actors played the role with a Yiddish accent, but I wouldn't be surprised. (The current production doesn't give a hint of any of that.) How did the original audience react to this? Were the Jewish members of the audience amused or were they offended? After all, I assume most of them knew that the creators were Jewish. I think the reaction might have been a little of both. But I don't know. Having seen many Neil Simon plays in their original productions that wore their Jewish origins on their sleeves, I thought that they pandered to the Jewish section of the audience who seemed to laugh when some Yiddish word or stereotypical Jewish characteristic was injected. Perhaps, because of ever greater sensitivity to these characterizations, that you rarely see Neil Simon plays produced much any more. I don't know. Which leads to: What do Mormons think of Book of Mormon? |
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