Arts. Entertainmen

Jake Ehrenreich in
A Jew Grows in Brooklyn

Headed for a springtime visit to the Big Apple?
Check out our picks for New York shows with a Jewish twist.

Alice Burdick Schweiger

ers, playwrights, directors and
Special to the Jewish News • themes. Here is just a sampling:

T

he names on the
Broadway marquees this
season read like an "A-
list" of Hollywood film stars. Julia
Roberts, Mark Ruffalo, David
Schwimmer, Ben Gazzara and
Paul Rudd are all showing their
talents on the New York stage.
"As the entertainment menu
has exploded, actors want to
incorporate all the different
media in their working lives:' says
Jed Bernstein, president of the
League of American Theatres and
Producers. "That's why you see
people with successful film and
television careers periodically
return to Broadway. Acting on
stage in front of a live audience
and being able to reproduce a
performance eight times a week
is the real torture test of their
skills!'
But whether the draw is
Hollywood stars or offerings
of good theater, Bernstein says
attendance is up in 2006. "We are
up about 4 percent from last year,
with 11.7 million admissions:' he
says. "It's the second- or third-
highest year on record."
As in most years, there are
plenty of new dramas and musi-
cals with a Jewish connection
— including actors, compos-

42

May 18 • 2006

Marshall Brickman, who collabo-
rated on Sleeper, Annie Hall and
Manhattan with Woody Allen.
At the August Wilson Theatre,
245 W. 52nd St., (212) 239-6200.

Broadway

Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Set in 1945 and adapted from
Jewish author Herman Wouk's
Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, this
play was first seen on Broadway in
1954. Starring Jewish actor David
Schwimmer (TV's Friends), it's
a courtroom drama that centers
on an incident of mutiny aboard
the fictional U.S. S. Caine dur-
ing World War II in the South
Pacific. Schwimmer plays Jewish
Easterner Barney Greenwald, the
attorney who defends the lieuten-
ant who commandeered the ship.
At the Schoenfeld Theater, 236
W. 45th St., (212) 239-6200.

Jersey Boys
No one should complain about
getting their money's worth after
seeing this jukebox musical fea-
turing the hit songs of the Four
Seasons. Certain to nab several
Tony Awards, this musical biogra-
phy of a group of blue-collar boys
from New Jersey who became
one of the biggest American pop
sensations includes the highs and
lows of the group, their financial
troubles, personal losses and
even an important Detroit con-
nection. The musical's book is
co-authored by Jewish writer

„IN

Lestat
This musical with a score by
Elton John is based on Ann Rice's
best-selling novel The Vampire
Chronicles and its lead character,
Lestat, who runs away to Paris,
where a vampire snatches him
and gives him immortality. Lestat
winds up in New Orleans, where
he creates a family that includes
Claudia, an orphan girl-turned-
vampire. Jewish director Robert
Jess Roth (Disney's Beauty and
the Beast) helms the cast of 21.
At the Palace Theatre, 1564
Broadway at 47th St., (212) 307-
4100.

.

Tarzan
This newest Disney musical pro-
duction, about the man raised
by apes after his parents' death,
is based on the 1999 Disney
film. Music and lyrics are by
Grammy and Oscar winner Phil
Collins. Josh Strickland stars as
Tarzan. Jewish lighting director
Natasha Katz is married to former
Detroiter Dan Moses Schreier.
At the Richard Rodgers Theatre,
226 West 46th St., (212) 307-4747.

The Drowsy Chaperone
Loved by critics and audiences.
alike, this clever new musical
comedy is about a theater enthu-
siast whose favorite Broadway
show-tune album (called The
Drowsy Chaperone — and writ-
ten by fictitious Jewish songwrit-
ers Gable and Stein) comes to life -
when he plays it. Set in the 1920s,
the show's roster of colorful char-
acters includes a Broadway starlet
and her fiance, a producer, a Latin
lover, a couple of gangsters, a
dowager and a chorus girl. The
David Schwimmer, Zelijko
star-studded cast includes Jewish
Ivanek (seated) and Tim Daly in
actor Danny Burstein (Titanic),
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Georgia Engle (Mary Tyler
writer Wallace Shawn. Starring
Moore Show) and Tony win-
Alan Cumming, Cyndi Lauper and
ner Sutton Foster (Thoroughly
Jewish comedian Ana Gasteyer
Modern Millie), who grew up in
(Saturday Night Live).
Troy. Music and lyrics are by Lisa
At Studio 54, 254 West 54th St.,
Lambert and Greg Morrison.
(212) 719-1300.
At the Marquis Theatre, 1535
Broadway, (212) 307-4100.
The Wedding Singer
Based on the 1998 Adam Sandler-
The Threepenny Opera
Drew Barrymore movie, this
First performed in Berlin in 1928,
musical is about a wedding
this dark, satirical operetta about
singer who falls in love with a
respectable society and its under-
bride-to-be in New Jersey. In
belly — the seedy world of beg-
one scene, his band plays at a
gars and thieves — was the col-
bar mitzvah. Music is by Jewish
laborative effort of Bertolt Brecht
composer Matthew Sklar, an
and Jewish composer Kurt Weill,
associate conductor for many
who fled to America when the
productions, including Nine, 42nd
Nazis took power in Germany. The
Street, Titanic, Miss Saigon and Les
new translation for this produc-
Miserables. Stephen Lynch, who
tion is by Jewish character actor-
grew up in Saginaw and attended