New York Theater: Why were so many of Broadway songwriters in the twentieth century Jewish?
The documentary suggests several factors, as the documentary’s filmmaker Michael Kantor has explained: “It’s Yiddish theater, it’s Jewish liturgical music that feeds into great Broadway shows, it’s a Jewish ethos that says we’re not just going to amuse you but we’re going to instruct you: If you behave a certain way, you can get the girl, you can win. America is a place where that optimism will reign…These are children of immigrants who want to master the language….”
3 comments:
This documentary sounds really interesting. I love the history of theatre, and getting into the influences of the common musical elements of musical theatre is one of my favorite things. The bit in the article about both the Jewish and the African-American music traditions using minor keys was fascinating to me. I would be interested to find out more about other similarities between various musical influences of musical theatre. It also made a lot of sense to me when the article talked about the influence of the Jewish ethos of not just amusement but also instruction; the musicals that stick with you the most are the ones that have an emotional core to them, a piece that changes you a little bit. Often, when analyzed, that core can be revealed as a lesson of life. I am excited to learn more about this topic and I will definitely be watching this documentary!
This article immediately caught my eye. I didn’t realize that a lot of these huge musical theatre pioneers, and Carnegie Mellon School of Drama alum were jewish. Michael Kantor claimed that the reason a lot of Jewish music was being featured on Broadway was because their music was Yiddish Music, and that it is Jewish liturgical music that feeds into great Broadway shows. Some of the big names from this article are; Stephen Sondheim, John Kander, George Gershwin, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. I think it’s really great that these Jewish artists are being featured, especially around Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Some really known Jewish performers mentioned in the article were Barbra Streisand, Fanny Brice, and Dick Van Dyke. All such incredible performers. I found this article to be super informative and really interesting. There is also a documentary that goes along with this article, and I think it would be super interesting to watch eventually.
Lilly Resnick ^^^
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