Friday, August 28, 2020

310. LIGHT, LIVELY AND YIDDISH. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

 

Reisl Bozyk, Ben Bonus.

LIGHT, LIVELY AND YIDDISH [Musical/Judaism/Yiddish] B/L: A. Shulman and Wolf and Sylvian Younin; M: Eli Rubenstein; AD: Ben Bonus; ADD. MTL: M. Gershonson, Ch. N. Bialik, Ch. Cheffer, Mina Bern; D: Mina Bern; CH: Felix Fibich; S: Josep Ijaki; C: Sylvia Friedlander; P: Sol Dickstein; T: Belasco Theatre; 10/27/70-1/10/71 (88)

Reisl Bozyk, Leon Liebgold, Lili Liliana, Ben Bonus, Mina Bern, Seymour Rexite, Miriam Kressyn.

An all-Yiddish Broadway show, with sporadic English narration, Light, Lively and Yiddish was part comedy and part variety show. In the first half, Hershele (Ben Bonus), the helpful jester of Ostropolis, gives aid to a young shtetl couple in love. In the second, the problems of assimilation into American culture of Old World Jews are addressed.

The program was pleasing, but standard fare for such offerings. One of the performers was the young Diane Cypkin, a fine singer-actress and Yiddish-theatre specialist, who continues to be active as a singer of nostalgia-scented songs.