DECEMBER 15 • 2022 | 71

A 

major Jewish 
cultural event is 
occurring, now, 
on Broadway, in New York 
City, as Tom Stoppard’s new 
play, Leopoldstadt is drawing 
large crowds. This partly 
autobiographical drama 
(Stoppard knew little about his 
Jewish roots until late in life) 
follows the Merz family as they 
experience the exhilaration of 
their exciting, beautiful city, 
Vienna, in all its fin de siecle 
warmth. Residing in the Jewish 
Leopoldstadt neighborhood, 
they thrive in business and 
participate in cultural and 
intellectual life as they waltz 
their way into assimilation, 
intermarriage and complacency.
We, the audience, can see 
what is coming, but the family, 
for all their pride in Freud and 
Mahler, don’t think they need 
Herzl, a seder or any of the old 
trappings of tradition as they 
have now become real Viennese 
citizens. Besides, the Christmas 
tree decoration is fun, and the 

pastries are so delicious.
As the scenes unfold, we 
follow the characters, who like 
us all, are wrapped up in their 
own lives and can only briefly 
turn their attention to the slow 
sweep of the history of their 
family and Jewish people. Their 
fading memories don’t grasp 
the old patterns repeating. 
The family had suffered from 
pogroms and poverty in the 
East only decades before, but 
the growing signs of Jew-hatred 
are dismissed as sporadic, 

unimportant and a small price 
to pay for the privilege of a new 
Viennese identity.
While the 2-hour-and- 
10-minute (no intermission) 
drama leaves time for 
discussion of ideas and 
interesting dialogue, the play 
gains momentum, and events 
come ever more swiftly.
Characters age, new ones 
are born, the family suffers 
privation. Some lose jobs; some 
lose their homes; all lose their 
dignity and innocence. Their 

dreams narrow with the closing 
off of options. Escape routes 
are closed. The once joyful 
conversations about culture 
are replaced with sharing news 
and rumors of passports, visas, 
borders, jobs and food.
In 1938, as the family is 
huddled in the now colder, 
more starkly furnished room 
where the play began, a loud 
banging is heard at the door. 
The family Merz now knows 
(almost as much as we do) that 
it’s too late. 
It’s Kristallnacht and enter 
the Nazis. Humiliation and 
hopelessness subdue them 
as they are told to pack one 
suitcase and report the next day 
for transport. A quick marriage 
is proposed, a child cuts his 
hand when he drops a cup, the 
patriarch Hermann is forced to 
sign over his textile business.
A final scene takes place in 
1955. Two characters, Nathan 
and Leonard Chamberlin (who 
had been little “Leo,
” Leopold 
Rosenberg in the previous 

ARTS&LIFE
THEATER REVIEW

A play to help you remember.
Leopoldstadt

BARRY TIGAY, PH.D. SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

 JOAN MARCUS

The Broadway 
Company of 
Leopoldstadt

Reese Bogin (Mimi), 
Sara Topham (Sally) and 
Ava Michele Hyl (Bella)

continued on page 72

