Arts &Entertainment

Re-Vamped!

Musical loosely based on Jewish silent screen star plays Chicago's Jewish theater.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

eff Hochhauser defines himself
as a "silent film freak" and has
been particularly fascinated with
the screen roles and emotional expres-
sions of legendary actress Theda Bara.
After reading an article about how Bara
fooled people by claiming an Egyptian
heritage, Hochhauser decided to write a
fictional musical taking off from Bara's
real roots as the Jewish Theodosia
Goodman of Cincinnati.
The result is Theda Bara and the
Frontier Rabbi, which has a script by
Hochhauser, music by Bob Johnston
and lyrics by both. The collaboration
began after the men met at a musical
theater workshop.
Travelers to Illinois can experience the
writers' fiction if they see the show per-
formed Mondays-Wednesdays, July 25-
Aug. 3, by the Chicago Jewish Theatre.
The project, produced as a concert
musical, is like a staged reading, with
actors in everyday clothes reading from
scripts; the singers will be accompanied
by Michele Denotter at the piano.
"I had seen the full production when
it played Chicago in the early 1990s,"
says Brian LeTraunik, company manag-
er, who runs the theater with his moth-
er, artistic director Elayne LeTraunik.
"When we were looking for an obscure
musical, I remembered it and got a
copy of the script.
"I thought the show was charming,
funny, sweet, entertaining and an all-
around crowd pleaser. Our audience
wants to see musicals but producing

41

them can be pretty cost prohibitive, so
we are doing the concert musicals."
The program ignores the Hollywood
manufactured image of Bara, as a
Hollywood "vamp," and portrays
her as a young woman who sim-
ply wants to dress up, go to
synagogue and meet a nice
rabbi in the setting of the
early 1900s. After the rabbi's
sister introduces the couple,
the romance starts, with the
young man also dreaming
of a career among cow-
boys.
Songs include "Frontier
Rabbi," "Bolt of Love" and
"Velcome to Shul."
"We use the songs to
carry the action forward,
and we like to think of this
musical as a lot of fun," says
Hochhauser, 52, who is a sen-
ior outreach coordinator for
New York's American Musical
and Dramatic Academy and
draws on his own Jewish back-
ground to enhance the writing. "We'd
be in Chicago to see this production,
but we'll be opening a new show, Anne
and Gilbert based on Anne of Green
Gables, on Prince Edward Island."

The Real Bara

In reality, Bara, the daughter of a tailor,
was the screen's first sex symbol,
according to Hollywood historian
Leonard Maltin in his Movie

Encyclopedia.
"She was one of Hollywood's first
`manufactured' stars," Makin says. "An

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Theda Bara and the Frontier Rabbi

will be performed 8 p.m.
Mondays-Wednesdays, July 25-
Aug. 3, at the Chicago Jewish
Theatre, 5123 N. Clark St., in
Chicago. $20. (773) 728-0599.

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da Bara as Cleopatra,
in
which she wore a famous coiled
snake bra and became the precursor
for such modern-day vamps as
Madonna.

started appearing on stage. She was an
extra in films before playing the femme
fatale in A Fool There Was in 1915,
when she mouthed her most famous
line, "Kiss me, my fool!"
Bara moved to Hollywood with
the film industry and was known
for her silent film roles as
Cleopatra, Carmen, Madame
Du Barry and other seductive
women. She married director
Charles Brabin in 1921 and
was a successful Hollywood
hostess until she died in 1955
from cancer.
The actress was one of the
few silent screen stars who
never trarthitioned to talkies.
There is no record of her
voice on film. Her 42-movie
film career came to a virtual
stop with 1919's Kathleen
Mavourneen. Irish and Catholic
groups protested the film's depic-
tion of Ireland and a Jewish actress
in the lead role. The movie was
yanked after several movie theater riots
and bomb threats.
"You don't have to know who Theda
Bara was to like this show," LeTraunik
says. "You can relax with it and just
have fun."

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