Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers (25 page)

Also unlike many of those who preceded her, she would first change her stage name to the less ethnic-sounding Terri Fairchild before deciding to go instead with her Hebrew name, Tovah, and return to her real last name, Feldshuh.

Her first Broadway experience was seeing Gwen Verdon in the original run of
Damn Yankees
in 1955 as a very young child. She knew at that time that this was something she definitely wanted to pursue. Years later, she would make her own Broadway debut in the show
Cyrano
, in 1973, which had a shorter run than
Cyrano’s
nose. Nonetheless, it was a starting point for the young performer. “I was in a little more than the chorus, with 14 lines,” says Feldshuh.6

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Jews on Broadway

It was in
Yentl
, however, first Off Broadway and then on Broadway, that Tovah made her mark, generating critical acclaim, audience attention and a Tony Award nomination. Feldshuh appeared in other Broadway shows and expanded her career to films and television. She would then establish herself in the record books for bringing the life of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to the stage in
Golda’s Balcony
, the longest-running one-woman show in the history of Broadway, lasting nearly 500 performances. It is a role for which she became forever associated.

In contrast to the many Jewish performers who changed their names to be “less Jewish,” Tovah benefited to some degree by keeping her Jewish name. “When you see name Tovah Feldshuh, assumptions would go along with that name. I would work hard and master these roles, but people assumed I had a foot in the door,” explains Feldshuh.7 However, she did later acknowledge that when it came to Jewish roles in plays such as
Kissing Jessica Stein
and
Golda’s Balcony
, among other shows, she was thought of immediately. Conversely, when Neil Simon or a director was looking for a non–Jewish, or “less Jewish,” actor to play a Jewish character for more mainstream appeal, she had a much harder time landing such roles. Nonetheless, she did land her share of non–Jewish roles in several shows including
Lend Me a Tenor
and
She Stoops to Conquer
, where she performed Off Broadway with Nathan Lane.

Feldshuh, whose Jewish identity has always remained a significant part of who she is, also weighed in on why the Jewish people gravitated to the entertainment industry and theater in particular. From her perspective, the Jewish immigrant population in America wanted to participate and have a voice in their new world. “For centuries, the Irish were mauled by the British, so when they emigrated to the United States, they became cops and elected officials. They wanted to have some control over their environment. Similarly, the Jews in Europe were denied entry into so many aspects of society that when we arrived here, we took the opportunity to participate in the media, not only entertainment, but the newspaper industry as well,”7 explains Feldshuh about the Jews making sure to have a voice, fair representation and some control over the message. “We didn’t want the message to be about the country clubs that denied access to Jewish people. We wanted it to be about opportunities for everyone to reach the American Dream and we wanted to be champions of that dream,”8 she adds. The media and the stage (and later the 144

6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s
screen) provided the opportunity to be part of the message. In fact, Feldshuh also explains that theater allowed the Jewish people to present the message using two things the Jewish people are very good at: storytelling and humor. “We were always great storytellers, and we could be self-deprecating before others could deprecate us,”9 says Feldshuh.

Tovah also notes that as a child she was taught to ride a horse at a young age. As she points out, the Cossacks and military leaders in Eastern Europe rode horses and wielded great power, especially over the Jewish people. “It was important to get up on a horse not just as a means of assimilation, but as a way of showing that the Jews had arrived in a place of power from which we were once murdered in the old days,”10 explains Feldshuh.

Tovah Feldshuh continues to have a tremendous commitment to both the theater and to her Jewish heritage, to which she remained dedicated through her tireless involvement in numerous Jewish organizations and causes.

From Streisand playing Fanny Brice to Mostel in
Fiddler
to Tovah Feldshuh as Golda Meir, the Jewish presence was indeed felt through the performers on the stages of Broadway in the 1960s and ’70s.

JOSEPH PAPP

One key contributor to Broadway in the 1960s and ’70s was Joseph Papp. The sheer determination to bring quality theater to the people of New York City epitomized Papp’s long career. Often very critical of Broadway, claiming those who were involved were in it for the money, Papp nonetheless had a major influence on Broadway and helped save it when box office numbers dropped in the ’70s.

“I feel better when I lose Tonys than when I win them. When I win, I become part of that Broadway thing. When I lose, it makes me feel clean,” Papp was quoted as saying in a
New York Daily News
article.11

Born Joseph Papirofsky in Brooklyn in 1921, to Jewish immigrant parents from Russia, Papp spent his youth helping his family make ends meet with a series of jobs ranging from telegraph messenger to chicken plucker. It was in the Navy, during World War II, that he discovered his knack for staging shows with limited resources. After the war, while 145

Jews on Broadway

working as a stage manager at CBS television, Papp fell victim to the anti– Communist scourge, being labeled as a Communist sympathizer.

Despite having just served in the United States Navy, his work with a radical acting group in California and his left wing views were enough circumstantial evidence to cause Papp to lose his job. But his loss was New York City’s gain. Papp had always wanted to bring affordable theater to the people of the city by presenting free Shakespearian plays in the city’s parks. In the late 1950s, his dream became a reality when he would stage the first Shakespeare plays in Central Park. Of course, Papp and the newly named Shakespeare Festival in the Park would be challenged by politicians, such as the mayor of New York City at that time, Robert Moses, who tried to shut down the free shows for fear of ruining the park. Papp would go head to head with the mayor and win public support. With many prominent New Yorkers backing his efforts, he would proceed to win the battle and dazzle New Yorkers, which is not an easy feat.

In the many years of the Shakespeare in the Park Festival, stars including James Earl Jones, George C. Scott, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Meryl Streep, Sam Waterson, Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt have participated. And when the festival needed money, the public was generous and donated what they could so that the shows would continue.

Once the Shakespeare in the Park Festival found a permanent home in Central Park’s open air Delacorte Theater, Papp turned his attention to his other goal of presenting public theater. He wanted to find a venue in which new, innovative and alternative plays and musicals could be introduced to the public. Such a people’s theater would be a place where plays could be developed and where theatergoers could enjoy a performance for a reasonable price. In 1967, following a new law in New York City which stated that buildings deemed as landmarks could not be torn down, Papp found an ideal venue in the old Astor Library in New York’s East Village. The price was right as the city charged just $1 per year in rent.

Following a massive renovation, the new Public Theater would present many original plays, generating attention from a diverse audience that was not the typical “Broadway theater crowd” by Papp’s assessment.

These shows took on major issues of the time, much as the Group Theater 146

6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s
had done in the 1930s. Little did Papp know that some of the shows in the Public Theater would have a major effect on Broadway. One of the first productions was the counter-cultural hippie tribal rock musical
Hair
.

Of course the musical would eventually move to Broadway in 1968 and become a triumphant success, revived in recent years. Other Papp productions would follow the path to Broadway, the most famous of which being
A Chorus Line
, followed by
I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking
It on the Road
,
The Pirates of Penzance
and
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
, among others. The difference was that following the success of
Hair
, Papp remained attached to the other shows as producer once the shows made their transition to the Great White Way. While still not a fan of Broadway’s commercialism, Papp was no fool, and he knew he could use the money earned by one Broadway smash hit to maintain the Public Theater and the New York Shakespeare Festival as well as support other ventures such as the Theater for a New Audience and the Riverside Shakespeare Company. In addition to presenting new shows, Papp supported nontraditional, rainbow casting and, in part spurred on by his son being gay, responded to the growing AIDS crisis in New York City by presenting Larry Kramer’s controversial play on the subject, called
A Normal
Heart
, which generated critical acclaim and brought the issue to greater public awareness.

Sure, Papp criticized Broadway, but his influence was, and still is, significant. Public Theater provided a starting point for shows, some of which clearly impacted Broadway, while others left their mark on audiences in Off Broadway productions. A true visionary, Papp actually saved Broadway in the ’70s with
A Chorus Line
, and in the process also saved the struggling Shubert Organization that brought the show to one of its theaters. For young performers he was a godsend. Whether he was doing Shakespeare in the Park or
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
, part of David Rabe’s Vietnam War Trilogy (which also went to Broadway and won a Tony Award), Papp gave young performers of all races, colors and religions an opportunity to be part of meaningful theater. He truly believed in opening the doors for new talent including up-and-coming playwrights, producers and directors.

Nine years after his death in 2000, the Joseph Papp Children’s Human itarian Fund was formed to help Jewish children in the Ukraine receive the food, homes and medical care they so badly need.

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Jews on Broadway

Jewish Life in the ’60s and ’70s

Many of the half-million Jewish soldiers in World War II took advantage of the GI Bill and went to college. The result was that by the 1960s, there was an increase in Jewish professionals living the good life in the vastly growing suburbs, especially around New York City.

While assimilation, money and stability also planted the seeds for a new conservatism among some Jews, many others followed the lineage that leaned to the political left. Members of the Jewish community, now more firmly entrenched in the greater community at large, became active in the growing feminist movement, the gay and lesbian community, the anti-war protests and other social and cultural issues that epitomized the

’60s and spilled over into the ’70s. From rabbis to social, community and political leaders, to playwrights, producers, directors and performers, the Jewish people took part in addressing the issues that came to the forefront during these eye-opening decades. From the Public Theater of Joseph Papp, to Off Broadway to Broadway itself, theater remained one place in which to shed light on many of the important issues and concerns of the day ... while also providing marvelous entertainment.

In addition, American Jews brought attention to the struggles of their fellow Jews abroad. For example, there was growing awareness and support for Soviet Jews who were still seeking a better life. There was also a growing commitment to the young state of Israel, support that has remained a common bond throughout the Jewish community.

As was once the case with the Yiddish theater, the Jewish community embraced Broadway, especially as they saw more of themselves and their culture on stage. The regular, typically more affluent, Manhattan-based “theater crowd” now extended off the island and into the boroughs, onto Long Island, up north into Westchester and Connecticut, and across the river into New Jersey. Jewish families were among the most frequent supporters and visitors of Broadway theater.

And yet, despite enjoying numerous shows from their seats in the orchestra or the balconies, and recognizing the significance of the many hugely successful Jewish stars behind the scenes or under the stage lights, many Jewish parents, including my own, still had great skepticism about their sons and daughters embarking on a career in theater. I guess some things never change.

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7

Young Playwrights

with a Message, Inflation,

Disney and Me

The 1980s and 1990s brought a new breed of Jewish playwrights to Broadway. Not unlike the writers of the 1930s Group Theater, these young writers were politically astute and were also hoping to raise awareness to significant social issues and political oversights through their work. For them, issues such as the anti–Semitism of the 1930s were no longer among the prominent concerns. The impact upon Broadway by Jewish writers, composers and performers was now quite well accepted, and being a Jewish playwright or composer may have even proven to be advantageous considering the track record.

Many of the new generation of Jewish playwrights were gay, and they had very serious concerns about social acceptance and about the growing AIDS epidemic. One of the best known of these playwrights was Larry Kramer.

Born in 1935, Kramer grew up in a Jewish family in Maryland.

Although he dated women in high school, he was exploring his sexuality, and by the time he was in Yale, in the mid 1950s, he realized that he was gay. By the late 1970s, Kramer had already enjoyed screen success with
Women in Love
, by D.H. Lawrence, and had written a satirical novel entitled
Faggots.
Along with his involvement in gay causes, Kramer gained a lot of attention for his views on the gay lifestyle. He frequently spoke out against gay promiscuity and promoted lasting monogamous relation -