Entert

Not Just Fiddlin' Around

With the help of a veteran New York professional, Congregation Shaarey Zedek
stages "Yiddle With a Fiddle," a musical for young and old alike.

-::0:*aelitlt,

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News

T

heatrical gold is joining
Chanuka gelt as a way to
celebrate this holiday of
giving at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek.
New York producer-director-
choreographer Helen Butleroff,
who has brought classic American
musicals to audiences across the
country, will be in town to direct a
show she has presented on profes-
sional stages in New York and Los
Angeles.
With cast chosen from the 'syn-
agogue membership, she will stage
Yiddle With a Fiddle, a story of
young love expressed
through plenty of
melodic tunes and live-
ly dancing.
Show times are 2
and 8 p.m. Sunday,
Dec. 5, sponsored by
the Laker family and
the Morris and Beverly

Clockwise from top right:

Director Helen
Butler° : "The music
in Ti le With a
Fiddle' is probably
some of the most
meloc is music I've
heard in a show."

Music Director Marty
Mandelbaum leads Stacy
Harold, Lou Soverinsky and
Udi Kapen in rehearsal.

Udi Kapen (Froym),
Lou Soverinsky (Aryeh)
and Stacy Harold (Yiddle)
practice for their roles in
"Yiddle With a Fiddle."

Shaarey Zedek Cantor
Chaim Najman is producing the play.
"The show has sentiment, but
it doesn't have the sadness of so many
plays that describe shtetl living," he says.

'4‘,‘, ZSIIISOLS12'

tiqgp

1F .7 .

Baker Foundation in memory of
Morris D. Baker. Although admission
is free, tickets must be ordered in
advance.
"This is an adorable story," says
Butleroff, who brought a contempo-
rary Jewish revue, That's Life, to sub-
urban Detroit several years ago.
"Yiddle is a young girl living in [pre-
World War II] Poland.with her dad.
They're both musicians without
money to pay for their home and have
to go on the road.
"It's very dangerous for a young girl
to live that way so she dresses like a
man. As the story evolves, she falls in
love with a member of a band they've
joined, and it takes a while before he
realizes that she's a girl."
This story originally was done in
the 1930s as a Yiddish film starring
Molly Picon. The updated, English
version being presented in Southfield
was written by Isaiah Sheffer. The
music was composed by Abraham
Ellstein, who also did The Golem.
"I saw this in Florida in 1992 and
fell in love with it," says Cantor
Chaim Najman, who is producing the
play locally. "It's an opportunity to
expose young people to Yiddish the-
ater because there will be a few
Yiddish verses and some Yiddish
expressions, which they might recog-
nize as used by their grandparents.
"The show has sentiment, but it
doesn't have the sadness of so many
plays that describe shtetl living. The
itinerant musical family has to adapt
to the places where they travel, and we
see people enjoying life in a very won-
derfiil way.
The show's musical numbers span
a gamut of styles. "Man to Man," a
song of friendship, takes on a
humorous note as it's vocalized for
Yiddle by the male lead, her roman-
tic interest, before he realizes that
she's a woman. "Take It From the
Top," a swing number, celebrates
women as the driving forces in the
community. "Remember Me" is one
of the engaging ballads.

)7