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The Jewish News

GARY ROSE TRIO

Every Saturday Evening

1/30
1998

100

MC VEE'S

23380 Telegraph (South of 10 Mile Rd.)
(248) 352-8243
Southfield

Peter Friedman brings the story
of a turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrant
to the Broadway stage in "Ragtime."

MICHAEL ELKIN

Special to The Jewish News

N

ew York — Peter Friedman
is going from Ragtime to
riches, playing the part of
an impoverished Jewish
immigrant in a musical that leaves
him emotionally enriched.
As the artist Tateh, the pushcart
peddler hoping to peddle his prospects
and his art in his newly adopted
homeland of America, Friedman pro-
vides a portrait of the American
dream with a Yiddish accent.
The picture Tateh paints of
America for his young daughter, the
Little Girl, is one filled with "statutes
of liberty," a land where it is legal to
hope and expect and realize what was
once unimaginable.
No man is an island, Tateh discov-
ers, pushing his way past the din of
Ellis Island, and it is here where pros-
perity is possible.
Ragtime, the musical based on the
best-selling E.L. Doctorow novel that
intermixes fictional and factual charac-
ters from the turn of the century,
opened earlier this month at
Broadway's new Ford Center for the
Performing Arts, after successful runs
in Los Angeles and Toronto.
Last week, PBS's "Great
Performances" offered an insider's look
at "Creating Ragtime," (an Out &
About Best Bet!), a wonderful docu-
mentary about the combined efforts
of the 58-member cast and energized
production team led by producer
Garth Drabinsky.
In this program, Friedman, star of
TV's late, lamented "Brooklyn
Bridge," is shown crossing over from
actor to immigrant, assuming the
mantle of musical emigre.
In a way, Friedman has made the
journey, too, from Bensonhurst to
Broadway, where Judaism played its
own role in the Friedman family.
"The temple was a regular part of our
life," says Friedman, who was actually

Michael Elkin is entertainment editor
of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.

Peter Friedman as
Tateh: Peiforming
in his first musical.

raised in Queens.
That role proved not to be a lasting
one, however, as Friedman concedes
he "doesn't feel the synagogue's pull
[as much] today, although I'm
absolutely jealous of people who do."
Friedman has created an enviable
bio brimming with ethnic characters,
such as the near-perfect papa of

ti

"Brooklyn Bridge," as well as stage
roles in The Loman Family Picnic, The
Heidi Chronicles and The Tenth Man.
The characters have shown a gener-
ous Jewish side, although it is obvious
from Friedman's other roles — such as
his featured parts in the films Single
that he is
White Female and Blink
far from limited to such portrayals.

—