Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers (24 page)

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Jews on Broadway

Meanwhile, the 1970s saw a number of experimental and nontraditional musicals make their way to Broadway. This was, in part, due to the late ’60s box office success of the counter-culture hit
Hair
, which did not follow linear story lines and threw many of the conventions of theater out the window. In addition to the changing style and face of Broadway, the names and faces of the cast and creative teams were also changing. A down economy meant that fewer new shows were opening on Broadway, and as a result many of the established performers picked up and moved to California to focus their attention on film and television.

Nonetheless, there were still hit musicals, and two of the most significant brought the music of Schwartz back to the Broadway stage.
Godspell
was actually a college project that emerged as one of the longest running Off Broadway shows in history, opening in Greenwich Village and moving to the Promenade Theater, which is technically on Broadway at 76th Street, but is not considered a “Broadway theater” as are those in the main theater district. The musical, featuring parables presenting Bible stories, drew criticism for the hippie-esque clothing and pop-culture manner in which Christ was portrayed. The music, however, by Schwartz, infused gospel, rock and other styles into the score along with Episcopal hymns, which won over audiences night after night. Along with a very successful cast album, the song “Day by Day” became a major hit. While
Godspell
ran for just over 500 performances on Broadway, it saw some 2,600 overall staged performances in New York City before going on tour and becoming a very frequently staged musical by local theater troupes. It was also made into a successful film.

Pippin,
meanwhile was also initially a college project, this one by Schwartz himself. It is the story of the son of Charlemagne (Charles the Great), King of the Franks in the A.D. 700s. Like
Godspell, Pippin
tells the stories through a series of events, this time using a commedia dell’arte performance style originally developed in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. The style of performance features an improvisational comedic approach incorporating masks and costumes, often clown like. The success of
Godspell
, and the conviction of Bob Fosse to take a chance, helped bring
Pippin
directly to Broadway where it ran for 1,944 performances.

Schwartz would go on to write the music for a number of other Broadway musicals over what is now a career that has spanned six decades.

138

6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s
One of his biggest hits is
Wicked
, the current box-office smash, discussed later in the book. Schwartz is also one of a few elite lyricists who have had the honor of topping 1,500 performances with three musicals, the first of which being
Pippin
and the most recent being
Wicked
. In between would be the more difficult one to recall, even for those with Broadway trivia expertise. It just happened to be Doug Henning’s
The Magic Show
, which topped 1,900 performances in the mid 1970s. Schwartz wrote ten songs for what was primarily a vehicle for Henning’s talent with a thin plot line built around his amazing slight of hand. Schwartz would also pen the lyrics for a number of films including the Disney hits
Pocahontas
,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
and
The Prince of Eg ypt.

And then there was Marvin Hamlisch. While Hamlisch was far better known for more than 50 film scores, his claim to Broadway fame was being part of one of the most successful shows in musical history,
A Chorus Line
.

Born in New York City to a Viennese-Jewish couple, Lilly and Max Ham lisch, young Marvin was playing piano by the age of five and accepted into The Juilliard School Pre-College Division at the age of seven. After graduating from Queens College, he started writing film scores, including some for early Woody Allen movies including
Take the
Money and Run
and
Bananas.
It was, however, in 1974, at the age of 30, that Hamlisch would be asked to write the music, with lyricist Edward Kleban, for a show about 19 dancers auditioning to be part of a chorus line. The auditioners would become the show and the audience would get to know them intimately as they bared their souls on stage. This inside look at the trials and tribulations of Broadway dancers resulted in
A Chorus Line
, which was initially produced by Joseph Papp Off Broadway at New York’s Public Theater. The demand for tickets was so great that the show moved to the Shubert Theater on Broadway where it held forth for over 6,100 performances, shattering all previous Broadway records as 6.5 million attendees took in the groundbreaking production.

While Hamlisch would go on to write the music for the autobiographical
They’re Playing Our Song, The Goodbye Girl
and a handful of other Broadway shows, nothing could match the magnitude of
A Chorus
Line.
The musical earned Hamlisch a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize, to go along with Emmys, Grammys and Oscars, a feat which only Richard Rodgers had previously accomplished.

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Jews on Broadway

The Definitive Musical Team of the ’60s

(and Beyond)

The music of composer John Kander and the lyrics of Fred Ebb were also prominently featured in the theaters in the 1960s as the duo joined forces on the first three Broadway musicals in their long and prosperous partnership.

Kander hailed from Kansas City, Missouri, where he began studying music at an early age. After college the young Jewish musician moved to New York City and attended Columbia University where he received his master’s degree. It was also in New York that Kander would get his first taste of Broadway as a rehearsal piano player for
West Side Story
.

Ebb, meanwhile, was a New York Jew, born and raised in the Big Apple. He too earned a master’s degree from Columbia University. However, despite their shared alma mater, Kander and Ebb did not meet until several years later. Ebb, while working odd jobs, such as bronzing baby shoes, began writing lyrics for nightclub acts and theater revues as well as for the musical
From A to Z,
which had a short run on Broadway in 1960.

It was in 1962 that Kander and Ebb first met. Together they would forge a career that would last five decades. Prior to their Broadway success, the two sat down and wrote songs together, two of which were recorded by an up and coming vocalist named Barbra Streisand. One of the two Streisand recordings, “My Coloring Book,” became her second single.

In 1965, the duo had their first Broadway show entitled
Flora the
Red Menace
, based on the novel
Love Is Just Around the Corner
by Lester Atwell.
Flora
focused on a young fashion designer seeking work during the Great Depression. She finds herself drawn into the Communist Party, in part because of the man with whom she has fallen in love. While the show lasted only 87 performances on Broadway, at a loss of some $400,000

(which was very significant for 1965), it also featured another up and coming female star, 19-year-old Liza Minnelli, in a Tony Award–winning performance.

From that point on, it was onward and upward for Kander and Ebb as they took on the score for
Cabaret
, which opened in 1965, ran for over 1,165 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical Score. In 1968 they teamed with David Merrick and Gower Champion to compose 140

6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s
words and music for
The Happy Time
. Also in ’68 they would provide the music and lyrics for
Zorba
, adapted from the novel
Zorba the Greek
by Nikos Kazantzakis.
Zorba
played for over 300 performances in 1968

and again for over 300 more performances in 1983.

Once established, the team of Kander and Ebb stepped up again for the musical version of a 1926 play about the gangsters of the era in the city of Chicago. The musical simply titled
Chicago
opened on Broadway in 1975 with Bob Fosse serving as director and choreographer. Much like the sleazy atmosphere that was the backdrop for the Berlin night -

club in
Cabaret
,
Chicago
was a musical about the underworld and Roxy Hart’s journey to vaudeville stardom despite killing her ex-lover. Once again there was also a master of ceremony, this time with a vaudeville flair. The show ran for just shy of 900 performances starting in 1975 ...

but it wasn’t finished.
Chicago
would return in 1996 as
Chicago: The
Musi cal
and win the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. It would proceed to run for more than 5,400 performances and is still going strong as of the writing of the book, putting it in the top ten all-time longest running Broadway musicals.

As for Kander and Ebb, following Liza Minnelli’s
The Act
in 1977, I would be fortunate to work with them on
Woman of the Year
in 1981.

They would later usher in a new decade, the ’90s, with
Kiss of the Spider
Woman
in 1991. They continued to work together for years to come, until Fred Ebb died of a heart attack in 2004.

Along with Broadway musicals, Kander and Ebb penned the music and lyrics for films and television specials, including those for Liza and for Frank Sinatra. They also have the distinction of writing the most notable song for the city they called home, recorded separately by both Sinatra and Minnelli, “New York, New York.” They were called by some the Rodgers and Hammerstein of the second half of the 20th century.

Under the Spotlights

The 1960s and ’70s were also a time when Jewish performers were once again prominently featured under the spotlights, as they had been back in the days of vaudeville. Along with Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, Phil Silvers, Bea Arthur and other established Jewish stage performers, 141

Jews on Broadway

there were newcomers such as Streisand, mentioned earlier, who made their mark on Broadway.

One such newcomer to the Broadway stage was Lauren Bacall, whose film career had begun over 25 years earlier and included
The Big Sleep
,
Dark Passage
,
Key Largo
and
How to Marry a Millionaire
. Bacall first hit Broadway in the early ’60s in
Goodbye, Charlie
and the Abe Burrows com edy
Cactus Flower
. But her triumph of the Broadway stage was yet to come.

Born in 1924 in New York City to Polish-Jewish immigrants, Bacall took her mother’s name since she had little contact with her father after her parents’ divorce. Working as a theater usher, she was discovered by a modeling agent and became a fashion model in the early 1940s. While modeling, she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. By the age of 20 she would begin a long and celebrated film career. But Broad way was always a passion of Bacall. Then in 1970, she would enjoy her most celebrated stage performance in the Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, Comden and Green hit musical
Applause
. Bacall brought with her to Broadway the Hollywood elegance and grace that had established her as a film star. Rave reviews and a Tony Award clearly indicated that Bacall had indeed made a major impact. Ten years later I would have the pleasure of working with her when she took on the leading role in
Woman of
the Year
, for which she once again walked away with a Tony Award. The show, meanwhile, ran for 770 performances.

It was also during the 1970s that Joel Katz followed in the footsteps of his father, nightclub and Catskills performer Mickey Katz. As it would turn out, the younger Katz would eclipse his father’s show business success under the name Joel Grey. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1932, Grey started performing when he was ten. After landing understudy roles in
Come Blow Your Horn
and
Stop the World — I Want to Get Off
, Grey would win over audiences and critics in his mid–30s as the emcee at the sordid Kit Kat Club in pre–Hitler Berlin in the musical
Cabaret
. In fact, Grey won a Tony Award for his supporting and very memorable role. He would later be called upon to reprise the role for the film version. For his efforts he won an Oscar. Grey then returned to Broadway in his signature role once more when the musical was revived.

The next significant role for Grey had him starring as the legendary George M. Cohan in 1968. The show, simply entitled
George M!
ran for 142

6. Jewish Themes, Legends and Life in the 1960s and 1970s
only 427 performances, but it established Grey as a serious triple threat, singing, dancing and acting his way to critical acclaim and a Tony Award nomination (he lost to Jerry Orbach in
Promises, Promises
).

After another Tony nomination for his role in
Goodtime Charley
in 1975, Grey would be cast in the Jerry Herman musical
The Grand Tour.

Although the show was not a box office hit, it was an ambitious effort set just prior to World War II, about a Jewish man who finds himself having to team up with an anti–Semite in order to stay one step ahead of the approaching Nazis.

After the 1987 revival of
Cabaret
, as well as his appearance in a revival of the hit musical
Chicago
, Grey would land in the hugely successful hit
Wicked
. While Grey also made his share of feature films and television appearances, he is best known as one of the elite stars of Broadway. A true song and dance man in the style of many greats who came before him, Grey has been recognized by both theatergoers and by his peers for his on-stage prowess. He is also known for his charitable work for organizations such as the Children’s Defense Fund. In keeping with the family’s show business lineage, Grey’s daughter Jennifer became a screen actress, best known for her role in the 1997 film
Dirty Dancing
.

Kevin Kline, Goldie Hawn, Bebe Neuwirth and other Jewish performers were also seen on Broadway during this era, while establishing their television and film careers. One stage actress who was always considered for Jewish roles was Terri Sue Feldshuh (pronounced Feld-shoo), better known as Tovah. Unlike the early Yiddish theater performers, Tovah, also born in New York City, did not know about poverty during her youth, growing up in an affluent community.