The National Yiddish Theatre: Past Performances

PAST PERFORMANCES

	The Adventures of Hershele Ostropolyer Click here for Photos Reviews: The New York Times The New Yorker CurtainUp BACKSTAGE Algemeiner
	SHLEMIEL THE FIRST Article: The Forward Reviews: The Forward
	SHOLOM ALEICHEM - "Laughter Through Tears" Click here for Photos Reviews: New York Post New York Times Backstage Curtain Up Huffington Post The Jeiwsh Daily Forward
	"Happy Birthday Kids & Yiddish! A Perfect Tsen!!" Click here for more information
	SHPIEL! SHPIEL! SHPIEL! Click here for Photos Reviews: New York Times The Forward Curtain Up Backstage Jewish Theatre The Jewish Standard NYBlueprint
	KIDS AND YIDDISH Click here for Videos and Photos
	GIMPEL TAM Click here for Photos Click here for Videos Reviews: The New York Post The New York Observer New York Times Curtain Up Backstage Jewish Press The Jewish Standard
	DI KSUBE (THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT) Reviews: DC Theatre Scene NY Theatre.com Backstage.com Curtainup.com The New York Times Forward.com Gossip Central The New Yorker
	Kleynkunst! Reviews: New York Times New York Post Broadwayworld.com nytheatre.com backstage.com CurtainUp
	Di Yam Gazlonim! The Pirates of Penzance in Yiddish Reviews: New York Times Backstage NY1 Feature Story
	A Yiddish Vaudeville Review: Backstage
	On Second Avenue Review: The New York Times
	A Novel Romance Abraham Goldfaden's comedy with songs "A Novel Romance" (DI KAPRIZNE KALEMOYD),. Adapted and directed by Allen Lewis Rickman. Mixing elements of satire and burlesque, "A Novel Romance" tells the story of a high-strung petit-bourgeois woman whose pursuit of a storybook husband straight out of her German romance novels leads to disaster. When two con men learn of her preferences, her dream man suddenly materializes, complete with the right name (Franz), elegant manner and requisite black moustache. Reviews: The New York Times New York Theater Scene
	The Lady Next Door The three-act comedy tells the tale of a married garment worker, Velvel (played by Sam Guncler), who has fallen for his next-door neighbor, Clara, a fiery Americanized Romanian immigrant. Clara (played by Debra Frances Ben) is married to a Lithuanian man who refuses to eat her beloved knishes, preferring, much to her ire, herring. During the two years covered by the first two acts of the play, Velvel's naive wife, Hindele, and his father, Kulya, are still in Russia, waiting for Velvel to send them enough money to bring them to the Suffolk Street tenement he lives in with his sister, Khyenke and her husband. In the meantime, Velvel has been transformed into Willie -- a strike-attending labor advocate who has stopped praying, shaven off his beard, and now dons a gold watch and western suit -- and has begun an affair with Clara. When Hindele (played by Yelena Shmulenson-Rickman) and Kulya (David Mandelbaum) unexpectedly arrive in America, both Velvel and Clara attempt to divorce their respective spouses and many humorous exchanges ensue. Review: Curtain Up
	Yentl Isaac Bashevis Singer's captivating story in its first Yiddish-language stage production. Starring Tony-nominated ELEANOR REISSA Directed by ROBERT KALFIN Folksbiene's Yiddish "Yentl" stars Eleanor Reissa in the inspiring role of Yentl, a rabbi's daughter whose thirst for learning is so great she circumvents Talmudic law by disguising herself as a man in order to realize her full potential as a human being. "Yentl" was an English-language stage adaptation by Singer and co-author Leah Napolin of Singer's 1950's story, "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy," originally penned in Yiddish. It went on to further fame when it was adapted into a Hollywood musical, which Barbra Streisand starred in, directed, and produced.
	Songs of Paradise (Lidr Fun Gan Eydn) "Songs of Paradise," a satirical retelling of the Old Testament's Book of Genesis, based on the biblical poetry of the Yiddish bard Itsik Manger. "Songs of Paradise," which premiered in 1989 at The Public, is Folksbiene's first production in both English and Yiddish. The Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle-nominated Avi Hoffman ("Too Jewish?" and "Too Jewish Too") directed and starred in the original "Songs of Paradise." Hoffman returns as director, this time with a brand new cast which includes Spencer Chandler, Jake Ehrenreich, Lia Koch, Yelena Shmulenson-Rickman and Theresa Tova. With Manger's Book of Genesis verse providing the show's lyrics, Miriam Hoffman and Rena Borow, co-authors of the book, retell the six well-known stories of the Bible's first chapter as if they were comic modern-day folktales filled with pop culture allusions. Rosalie Gerut's score mines an equally contemporary range of musical idioms, with everything from rock, jazz, rap and gospel counterpointing with klezmer. The show's music director is Zalmen Mlotek. The Tony-nominated director Eleanor Reissa ("Those Were the Days") is the choreographer.