I
Arts & Entertainment
Old Wicked Songs
Ronelle Grier
Special to the Jewish News
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October 18 • 2007
rom the moment that
Stephan Hoffman, a brash
young musical prodigy who
has come to Vienna to overcome a
creative block, bursts through the
door of curmudgeonly Professor
Josef Mashkan's studio, it is clear that
Jewish Ensemble Theatre's production
of Old Wicked Songs is no ordinary
tale about a teacher and his student.
The original 1996 Off-Broadway
production was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize; JET Artistic Director
Evelyn Orbach helmed
this staging, which
runs through Nov. 4, at
the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield.
Hoffman, the prodigy, is dismayed
to learn he must take singing lessons
from Mashkan before he can study
piano with a famous vir-
tuoso who has invited him
to Vienna. The characters'
opposing personalities
emerge when Mashkan
ignores Hoffman's pro-
testations and shows him
instead how to charm
a piano into producing
music with the same gen-
tleness, he says, that one
should use when seducing
a woman.
Daniel Kahn and Max Wright in Old Wicked
It is not clear at first
Songs at the JET Theatre
what the characters' reli-
gious affiliations are, but
Hoffman's reactions to Mashkan's
By the play's end, Hoffman's suit
seemingly insensitive remarks ab out
and tie are gone, replaced by a short-
Jews gives the audience a clue at
sleeved sport shirt that hangs loosely
both characters have underlyin g
over casual slacks. His hair, no longer
issues yet to be revealed.
restrained by the stiff gel, falls in
Although Old Wicked Song s is a two- natural waves.
actor play, the music is so p rominent
Although Mashkan's appearance
that it almost deserves a ca sting credit does not change, he also is trans-
of its own. The consistent musical
formed, but only after confronting
thread is the Dichterliebe , a set of
feelings and memories of his own that
songs Robert Schumann composed
have long been repressed. 1-1
in the 1840s to accomp any the poetry
of Heinrich Heine. It i the last verse
of these poems that g ives the play its
JET's production of Old Wicked
title.
Songs runs through Nov. 4 at
The pacing and animated interplay
the
Jewish Community Center in
between the actors keep the play
West
Bloomfield. For ticket res-
interesting, despit e the fact that there
ervations
or more information,
is only one set, P rofessor Mashkan's
call
(248)
788-2900 or visit the
study, designed by Christopher
website
at
www.jettheatre.org .
Carothers.
REVIEW
885 N. OPDYKE, AUBURN HILLS
(1/2
The room is dominated by a large
piano and furnished with remnants
of the bygone era of old Vienna. The
characters use the set to full advan-
tage; rotating between the piano, the
dining table, the brocade settee and
the window overlooking the streets of
Vienna.
Actors Daniel Kahn and Max Wright
also are gifted musicians, and all the
on-stage piano playing and singing is
performed live.
Costume desig ner Mary
Copenhagen us es the characters' dress
to reflect their personalities and also
the transform ations they undergo,
espe cially Hoffman's.
When he first comes
to Mashkan's quarters, he
a pears to be almost impen-
etrable in a dark business suit corn-
plete wit h heavily starched shirt collar,
tightly knotted tie and stiffly gelled
hair.