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| Leila Martin, Hal Linden. |
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| Hal Linden and company. |
Mixed reviews greeted this earnest attempt to forge a
serious, high-minded musical drama out of the story of the great German-Jewish
banking family founded by the clever, ambitious Mayer Rothschild (Hal Linden).
Mayer’s success as a financier in the 18th century principality of
Hesse allows him to provide economic support for the armies of Napolean. The
general, in his turn, reneges on a promise to abolish the Jewish ghetto.
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| Michael Maitland, Robert Benson, Kim Michaels, Hal Linden. |
The play sweeps across many years and allows the audience to view the growth of Mayer’s five sons from frightened ghetto children fleeing the brutality of young Gentile hoodlums, to men of international power and prestige. The love affair of one son, Nathan (Paul Hecht), provides the focus for a romantic subplot set in England. The episodic work thus mingles military and economic history, anti-Semitism, and romance in an atmosphere some felt was too humorless and heavy for a Broadway musical.
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| Hal Linden, Timothy Jerome, Chris Sarandon, Paul Hecht, David Garfield, Allan Gruet. |
Clive Barnes found the music an effective blend of classical, Jewish, and Broadway styles, concluding that the show was superlatively performed and staged. Others believed the show well done, but unexciting. Still others, like Martin Gottfried, considered it a serious failure that came nowhere near the best of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick collaborations, Fiddler on the Roof. Gottfried said The Rothschilds was superficial, “lead-footed and overstuffed, . . . old fashioned, [and] only represents the vulgarity of money and the vulgarization of Jewishness.” Several reviewers commented on the relative sparsity of dance.
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| Paul Hecht, Jill Clayburgh. |
Of the players, Hal Linden was commended for his role as the Rothschild patriarch. Walter Kerr described him as wearing a beard and caftan, like an 18th-century Jew, and said he “sings the role buoyantly, [and] plays it with a glad virility.” Keene Curtis, who played multiple role as four princes, caused Barnes to write that “each role was so different that you would not have been all that surprised if one of his characters had met one of his characters right there on stage.”
Members of the cast included David Garfield, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Benson, Chris Sarandon, and many others. Songs included "Pleasure and Privilege," "He Tossed a Coin," "Sons," "Rothschild and Sons," "The Amazing London Town," "I'm in Love! I'm in Love!," "In My Own Lifetime" (the most admired song in the show), "Stability," and "Bonds."
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| Keene Curtis. |
Despite its relatively robust run (for those days), The Rothschilds suffered heavy financial losses. It did accrue, however, a decent number of official recognitions, including Tony nominations for Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Lyrics, Best Director, Musical, Best Scene Designer, and Best Choreographer. Tony wins went to Hal Linden for Best Actor, Musical, Keene Curtis for Best Supporting Actor, Musical. Linden also snared the Variety poll award for Best Male Actor, Musical.
In 1990, Lonnie Price directed an Off Broadway revival, with Robert Cuccioli as Nathan. Cuccioli later played Mayer in a revised version of the show called Rothschild & Sons, seen Off Broadway in 2015 at the York Theatre. Interested readers can find my unenthusiastic review here.
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| Hal Linden, Keene Curtis, and company. |
