Administrative Office: 45 East 33rd. Street, Suite 303 New York, NY 10016 Office phone: (212) 213-2120 Office fax: (212) 213-2186 Box Office: (800)-9-YIDDISH (800) 994-3347 |
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By popular demand,
following its sold-out
NYC premiere at the
Kabarett Féte! festival:
KLEYNKUNST!
“the sold-out audience
consisted of all sorts:
young and old, Jewish
and non-Jewish, those
who know Yiddish
and those who don’t
speak a word...
Heart-rending songs...
The performance
invites the audience
to enter a magic,
enchanted world.”
-Rivka Schiller, Yiddish Forward
Rebecca Fletcher’s
KLEYNKUNST! is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. F unny, sexy, ironic,dramatic, KLEYNKUNST!
is the stuff I live for.”
-Rokhl Kafrissen, Jewish Currents
“ Solemn, striking and
impassioned...not to be
missed by anyone who
wants to dream of what
was done then and wake to what is happening now.”
-Karen Kohler, Producer, Kabarett Féte!
“An illuminating, ultimately touching show”
-Lawrence Van Gelder
New York Times, December 13, 2007
Click here to read the full review in the New York Times
“Some fascinating historical excavation has gone on with ‘KLEYNKUNST!’”
-Frank Scheck
The New York Post, December 13, 2007
Click here to read the full review in the New York Post
Additional reviews can be found at Broadwayworld.com, nytheatre.com and curtainup.com
Researched, Written & Originally Produced by: Rebecca Joy Fletcher
Director: Michael Montel
Musical Director, Pianist & Arrangements: Bob Goldstone
English Lyrics: Jeremy Lawrence
Warsaw, 1920s: a rising class of secular, passionate Jews, eager to see and be seen, frequent Kleynkunst teaters --Yiddish cabarets. Inside these “ little art theaters,” our hipster Yiddishists soak up the satiric music, laugh at anti-Semitism, drink whiskey, and learn to dance the Charleston. They were riding the wave of Polish independence, hoping for a brighter, freer world. Their hopes were dashed with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, and, not long after, with the institution of theWarsaw Ghetto. Yet, even within the Ghetto’s stifling walls, these hipsters continued to create brave and biting new cabaret.
Warsaw’s Yiddish cabarets drew from hugely varied influences:Weimar kabarett, Hassidic chant, vaudeville, Russian folk songs, jazz, tango and traditional cantorial music. The atmosphere was charged with contradiction: secular fervor and religious devotion; sexual bawdiness and naivete; political infighting and camaraderie.
KLEYNKUNST! reflects the spirit, bravado, and optimismof JewishWarsaw between theWars. This show brings to life the kleynkunst teater’s songs and sketches, in Yiddish and English translations.We pay homage to a world of brilliance and bite which no longer exists.
IN ENGLISH & YIDDISH WITH ENGLISH & RUSSIAN TRANSLATION SUPERTITLES.
at The Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Auditorium at the JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th Street
November 18th - December 30th, 2007Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 2:00pm & 6:00pm.
Additional performanceson Thursday, Nov. 29th at 2:00 PM
Wednesday, Dec. 5th, Wednesday, Dec.12th & Thursday, Dec. 13th. at 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM
Tickets $40, $50 for stage side cabaret seating (includes refreshments).
Tickets on sale beginning October 1st.
Call 212-279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com
Special Red Carpet Opening on Thursday, Nov. 29th at 7:30 pm.
Call (212) 213-2120 for details
Join us Sundays at 5:00 pm (free with admission to 6:00 pm show)
for Scholars’ Circle discussions with:
Nov. 25 Bret Werb “Majufes: A Meeting of Jewish and Polish Popular Culture”
Dec. 2 Sam Kassow “Warsaw: The Jewish Metropolis”
Dec. 9 Michael Berkowitz “Building the Future of Our Past”
Dec. 16 Ellen Schiff “From Old World Stage to New World Page”
Dec. 23 Michael Steinlauf “Badkhonim: Jewish Rappers of Yesteryear”
Dec. 30 Dovid Roskies “Cabaret Culture in Vilne”
GROUP DISCOUNTS ARE AVAILABLE.
For information please call Itzy Firestone 212-213-2120
