58—Friday, September 12, 1969
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
New Year Greetings
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Sincere Best Wishes for a Year
Filled with Health and Happiness
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Greetings to All
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Happy New Year
HANDLEMAN COMPANY
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Big Year on Broadway
In .the changing and diminishing
world of the Broadway theater
(not counting off-Broadway pro-
ductions, there were only 42 new
products in the 1968-69 season as
against 56 the previous year and
some 200 in the flourishing '40s).
one thing remains unchanged: the
leading producers are Jewish.
The two most successful musi-
cals. the new "Promises Promises"
and the six-year-old "Hello, Dolly"
(over 2.300 performances) are
David Merrick productions. Three
musicals bear the banner of
Harold Prince: the new "Zorba",
the perennial "Fiddler on the
Roof" (over two thousand per-
formances) and "Cabaret" (over
eleven hundred performances).
And the triple 1968-69 prize win-
ner (Pulitzer prize, New York
Drama Critics Award and the
Antoinette Perry "Tony" Award)
"The Great White Hope" is a
production of Herman Levin. In
addition, Merrick is the sponsor
of two comedy successes, the
Woody Allen "Play It Again Sam"
and "Forty Carats". Further, the
'late season unexpected musical
hit is "1776".
With the exception of the often
arrogant, critic baiting and not
immodest David Merrick, the
names of these producers are
•
largely unknown to the general
public: for the most part their
' names don't even appear in the
theatrical "ads." There is no
Ziegfeld - Follies, or George White
Scandals or Earl Carroll Vanities
as in the days of yore, and among
the Jewish producers, there are no
highly publicized names to replace
such names of the .past as Billy
Rose, Morris Gest, Max Gordon,
Sam II. Harris or the Shuberts.
Today, it %%aukd seem. the play is
the thing, even though the huge
profits go to the producers and
the backers.
a
LEVY
(Copyright 1969. TTA, Inc.)
in the European shtetl is a jovial
and colorful vaudevillian romp of
the naive dreams of the ghetto
dweller as he joyously likened his
life in squalor to a happier Bibli-
cal recollection.
The-Levin produced "The Great
White Hope," although of no spe-
cial Jewish interest as a play, did
bring to the spotlight a new play-
wright, Howard Sackler, who joins
the ranks of the many Jewish win-
ners of the Pulitzer and Drama
Critics awards. Other individuals
who made significant contributions
on Broadway during the year in-
clude Abe Burrows, one of the
famed play doctors of today, who
as director of "Forty Carats"
helped fashion that hit. Two vet-
eran scenic designers again dem-
onstrated their imaginative art:
Jo Mielziner with "1776" and
Boris Aronson with "Zobra." One
of the outstanding characteriza-
tions of the year was that of Jo-
seph Weisman as the outspoken
atomic scientist in "In the matter
of Robert Oppenheimer."
Dustin Hoffman, who became
a star overnight in the movie, "The
Graduate." earned acclaim for his
Broadway performance in the only
moderately successful M u r r a y
Schisgal play about a non-confor-
mist, "Jimmy Shine." And Woody
Allen. both as playwright and star,
triumphed as the "schnook' he
plays so well in his fantasy of him-
self as a Don Juan in "Play It
Again Sam."
In depressing, negative ways the
1968-69 season will be remem-
bered by Jerome Weidman and
Jackie Mason. The novelist-play-
wright Weidman, who has a Pulit-
zer laureate in his garland, au-
thored the very sick comedy, "The
Mother Lover" which folded after
one performance run and critical
assault for his performance in "A
Teaspoon Every Four Hours." Not
quite as painful, but nevertheless
unhappy, were the fates of two
playwrights who have previously
tasted
success.
Phoebe and
Henry Ephron with "My Daughter
Your Son" and Dan Greenberg
with two one-actors "Arf" and
"The Great Airplane Snatch."
To conclude, just one brief fore-
cast on the upcoming season. With
"Funny Girl" and "George M."
proving that musical biographies
have big hit potentials, several
are scheduled for next year. We
look forward especially to "Min-
nie's Boys," which concerns the
Four Marx Brothers: "The Broth-
ers Shubert," based on the lives
of the theatrical businessmen who
for a number of years almost
monopolized control of the Amer-
iran theater: and "The Roth-
schilds." based on the book by
Frederic Morton, which is being
converted into a musical by Jerry
Boch and Sheldon Harnick, who
wrote the score and lyric for "Fid-
dler on the Roof."
Talking about the financial
rewards to the successful pro-
Happy Holiday Greetings
ducer. consider Merrick.
"Promises, Promises" has already
a
recovered its $500,000 investment
Reba Paske. Prop.
‘" cost and is now netting an ap-
Hair Cutting—Permanent Waving—Tinting
o proximate profit of $31,000 a
Hours: Tues. and Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fri.. 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
week, of which Merrick gets about
LI 8-1155
•
8440 W. 9 Mile Rd., Oak Park
a half. In addition, Merrick is re-
353-2173
•
29111 Greenfield, Southfield
. puted to be netting about $41,000
a week profit from "Forty Carats"
, for which he provided his own
A Happy and Healthy New Year
capital and about $5,000 a week
Maurice and Irene Batchko
each from "Hello, Dolly" and
"Play It Again Sam".
Just as there are no well known
producing names, there are few
COUTURIER FASHIONS
legendary super-stars on Broadway
16155 W. 12 Mile Rd., corner Aberdeen
such as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor,
2nd Floor
358-5766
Fanny Brice and Bert Lahr. To-
day, the magic names are on TV.
The biggest Jewish name to
emerge on Broadway in many
Best Wishes for a Happy New Year
years is that of Barbara Streisand.
To Our Friends and Patrons
and today you'll more probably
find her in movies, TV, or Las
Mr. and Mrs. Kalman Lustig of
Vegas. The names most likely to
; make a deep impression on you
in the near future are Jerry
Poverty humiliates- people until
TO 9-9826
Ohrbach, who currently stars in
12028 Dexter
they blush for their virtues.—Vau-
"Promises Promises" and Joel
venargues.
Grey, who by way of "Cabaret"
'&11SULASUULSULSISUZSLASUL.szsursuurWASULASULSZ.SULL.W.
and "George M." is on his way
Greetings
to movie stardom.
NEW YEAR GREETINGS
* * *
Herschel Benardi, who was one
Bagel Restaurant
of the Tevyas of "Fiddler on the
Roof", is giving the finest per-
& Caterers
GREETING CARDS — GIFTS — TABLE PRIZES
formance on Broadway as the
'
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G•47 W. Seven Mile Rd.
ura etlauerneZoT
Woodward and Vernor
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Detroit
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Yiddish stage, one of the most
expensive anonymcus voices on TV
commercials (Charlie the Tuna), F-HAPPY NEW YEAR
Best Wishes for the New Year
NEW YEAR GREETINGS
in shifting from the Jewish Tevya
AUTO CITY,
LESTER, -HAROLD, RAYMOND GREENSPAN
-to the Greek Zorba proved'himself
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to be one of the most versatile
Auto Glass Installed
performers now on the stage.
Insurance Work
Dealers in Scrap Materials
The outstanding author of the
Glass Tops — Mirrors
year. certainly the richest, is the
3195 BELLVUE
16431 W. 7 Mile Rd.
3915 Greenspan Street, Detroit, Mich.
ex-TV gag writer, Neil Simon. He
WA 2-2720
Detroit, Mich. 48235 VE 8-5745
is currently represented on Broad-
way as the author of "Plaza
Suite," a triparte exposition of
Happy New Year To All Our
approaches to sex, and as the
New Year Greetings
Friends and Customers
author-adapter of "P r o m i s e s,
Promises" which in an earlier
incarnation was the movie, "The
Apartment." Burt Bacharach is
FINE AMERICAN-ITALIAN FOODS
also intitled to a bow as the author
TO 9-3988 of the music from "Promises, 8720 Livernois
17630 Woodward, near 6 Mile
TE 4-6400
Promises".
gAk2A3LkAsuLLMWAAAWASi
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•
It
From the point of view of con-
tent and philosophical conjecture,
the most interesting play of the
year was Robert Shaw's dramatiza-
tion of his own novel, "The Man
in the( Glass Booth." Receiving
mixed reviews from the critics, it
had a moderately successful run
of some eight months and its
meaning was at least a partial
puzzle to those who saw it. In-
trieuing most peopl.., it offended
some who viewed it as anti-Sem-
itic or pro-German, or both.
The plot-line is that Goldman re-
veals himself as high ex-Nazi, Col.
Adolf Dorff, allows himself to be
captured by the Israeli secret serv-
ice and be taken to Israel to stand
trial as Nazi war criminal, in the
Eichmann pattern. But on the
verge of conviction, almost achiev-
ing his aim, an old woman in court
breaks up the trial by positively
stating that he is not Dorff, the
ex-Nazi.
The non-Jewish author.
Robert Shaw. feels that peo-
ple "try to read too much" into
his story — and who can argue
with an author as to his intent.
In a New York "Times" interview,
Shaw voiced his annoyance that
many were confused by this play
and his anger that some "stupid
Jews—there are stupid Jews you
know—" view it as anti-Semitic.
Shaw denying that Goldman is a
Christ figure—except that he was
couragous—said that he tried to
show three things—nothing else:
"First. Goldman sees that he
lives in a very stupid and cruel
world, where terrible things like
the Nazi atrocities have been go-
ing on for centuries and no one
has yet learned a damn thing from
any of them.. Two, he is convinced
that it is time for the Jews to for-
give the Germans. Not forget, ex-
actly, but forgive. Three, he wants
to stand up in a court and pub-
licly acknowledge a guilt that no
true Nazi would ever acknowledge.
And, "Shaw continues, "he is an
old man, and wants one last grand
gesture, one ; last great football
game. That's all. Why must every-
one look for some elaborate mys-
tery in it?"
Of course, you can't argue with
an author's expression of intent
in his own novel or story. But per-
haps he doesn't fully understand
the motivations he has given his
characters, or very , likely he's writ-
ten a confused play. Perhaps that's
why the critics weren't complete-
ly enthused, although they were
interested. In any case, it's a pro-
vocative play or novel to read or
see . . and perhaps that Jew
can see more in it than even its
Gentile author.
* *
From a strictly Jewish point of
view, one of the highlights of the
season was the presentation on
Broadway of "The Megilla of Itzik
Manger." Presented in the original
Yiddish, by an Israeli cast, this
collection of poems based on the
Book of Esther, and dramatized in
the form of traditional Purimspeil,
achieved both critical and public
acclaim. It ran on Broadway for
ten weeks. It was happily,fortui-
tous that this success on Brmadway
should have come to Manger be-
fore his death a few months later
from a lingering illness 'of Feb.
20 of this year, folloWing his
belated acceptance in Israel as
Yiddish Poet. This fantasy of life
Bv . 114:NRY
-
BLUFTEIN BROS
PEERLESS DISTRIBUTING CO.