ENTERTAINMENT
N.Y. Producer Joe Papp
Revitalizes Yiddish Theater
ELLI WOHLGELERNTER
Special to The Jewish News
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FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1989
osef Papirofsky did
not become the most
influential theatrical
producer in America by
following trends. He sets
them.
For years, Yiddish theater
has been relegated to small
neighborhood stages showing
old chestnuts — classics
typically from Sholom
Aleichem and I.L. Peretz,
with one piano tinkling in the
background.
Papirofsky saw those shows,
loved them, but wanted to
make them speak to a new
generation of theatergoers,
one weaned on some of his
most innovative shows, like
his long-running mega hit, A
Chorus Line.
Papirofsky is better known
by his stage name: Joe Papp.
He's the producer who brings
inexpensive theater to the
public at his Public Theater,
and who presents free
Shakespeare every summer
in Central Park as the direc-
tor of the Neiv York
Shakespeare Festival.
To Papp the signs were un-
mistakable: Yiddish is hap-
pening, from bulging classes
at universities to the success
of Jackie Mason, the Yiddish-
inflected comic who just
finished a triumphant two-
year run on Broadway.
"There seems to be so much
interest in it," Papp said.
"Those who have a marginal
knowledge of Yiddish, who
number in the thousands, and
then those who speak it —
older people, Holocaust sur-
vivors and their children.
"There's a curiosity about
the language itself, even from
those who have no experience
with it. It's a feeling of Yid-
dishkeit, of roots."
A year ago, Miriam Hoff-
man, a child survivor of the
Holocaust and a writer for the
Jewish Forward, and Rena
Berkowitz Borow, a child of
survivors and a Yiddish
translator who has worked
with I.B. Singer, approached
Papp with the idea for a Yid-
dish acting troupe.
"We need a home," Hoffman
told Papp. "And you can do it."
Papp, moved by the request,
put his imprimatur on the
project, hoping that his spon-
sorship would enable it to get
off the ground. Thus, the
Joseph Papp Yiddish Theater
was born.
"It is the greatest feeling in
the world," Papp said, "put-
ting my name and Yiddish
together. It's the
mamaloshen."
It's what he knew best. "I
was raised Orthodox, and
spoke only Yiddish till I went
to school." Even today, he
said, both his sisters are
Orthodox.
Papp is proud of his
heritage. "I had my name in
the Brooklyn Botanic
Gardens' celebrity walk, for
people born in Brooklyn.
They had my name as Papp.
I had it replaced with
Papirofsky.'
Not surprising, then, that
the first production of Papp's
Yiddish Theater is a hilarious
contemporary musical based
on the book of Genesis.
Songs of Paradise is co-
authored by Hoffman and-
Borow, and based on the
world of poet Itsik Manger.
It has Adam sunning
himself in a beach chair, Cain
as a 6-year-old brat running
around with a toy machine
gun, Esau as a Yiddish
Marlon Brando sporting a
motorcycle helmet and
bargaining over lentil soup,
and a boxing match between
Rachel and Leah as they fight
over who gets Ya'acov.
All this is told to the tune
of rock 'n roll, doo-wop, jazz,
blues and gospel, as well as a
hand-clapping Yiddish min-
strel number. The buoyant
and dazzling songs were writ-
ten by Rosalie Gerut, who
also stars in the five-member
cast.
Originally scheduled to run
for three weeks, Songs was ex-
tended to two months. For
Papp, it was a commercial, ar-
tistic and personal success.
Once there were 20 Yiddish
theaters on Second Avenue.
Now there is one, the Folks-
biene Playhouse — which has
moved uptown.
Papp has no illusions that
Songs will trigger a rebirth of
the old Yiddish theater. "The
mashiach isn't coming with
this production," he said.
Nevertheless, he doesn't
feel that Yiddish theater is
just "limited to small reviews,
as a side show. It can make it
in the mainstream, too."
What's most important, he
said, is that "the language
not disappear. That's para-
mount in my mind. But it's
something that can only be
addressed by young people.
It's hard to preseve the
language when people who
speak it are dying out."
In the future, he would like
to "commission first-class
American Jewish play-
wrights like David Mamet, to
write a play for this group.
"I'd work with Duvid'l. He
can write an original play
and we'd have it translated in-
to Yiddish."
What next for the Joe Papp
Yiddish Theater? A Miten
Zumerdiker Nachts Cholem,
eppes?
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Adler Descendant Recalls
Family Theater Triumphs
MICHAEL ELKIN
Special to The Jewish News
L
una Adler Rosenfeld
has memory in her
voice — it is honey and
warmth, reflective of times
long ago when grandpop
Jacob, grand patriarch of Yid-
dish theater, would offer a
peek into the mystery and
magic that was theater.
To be an Adler is to be part
of the act even as the au-
dience is filing in, filling the
seats. lb have grown up as an
Adler was a childhood of
waiting in the wings for
greatness.
"Yes, there were times I
remember growing up think-
ing we were special — we
were actors," recalls Rosenfeld
proudly. "We grew up think-
ing we were celebrities. There
wasn't a tailor shop in New
York that we couldn't go into
without being recognized as
one of the Adlers' eight grand-
children."
But despite the fact that
zayde could bounce her on his
knee while recounting true
stories of such legends as
Thomashefsky and his own
derring-do, Rosenfeld says "it
was a pretty normal life. It
wasn't all that glamorous."
The Adler name —
patriarch Jacob, his children
Luther, Stella, Frances and
Celia, among others, and, of
course, granddaughter Lulla
Adler Rosenfeld — seems to
have a touch of glamor added
to it.
"Glamor?" Rosenfeld is
amused. "Life wasn't all that
glamorous. Our parents
acted, and that was that. We
didn't stand out from others."
Well, maybe sometimes