MTT pays homage to his grandparents

Boris Tomashefsky came from a long line of cantors. As a child in the Ukraine, he sang both liturgical music and songs by Abraham Goldfaden, the “Father of Yiddish Theater.” Already a star as a boy soprano in the Old World, he arrived in New York at the age of 15, voice still unchanged, and immediately set about presenting Goldfaden’s Koldunye, a kind of Cinderella story. Presenting dramas reflecting the immigrant experience in America, on subjects ranging from religion and myth to social and political issues, and producing musical theater as well as plays adapted from Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, and others, Boris became a star in the New World.

Bessie Kaufman also began her stage career at the age of 15, running away from home to join Boris as colleague and wife. She became a diva herself, and their combined talents as performers and entrepreneurs in the Thomashefskys’ People’s Theater attracted the participation of first-rate authors, composers, and performers. Yiddish theater made important and lasting contributions to American culture.

Thomas’ childhood was enlivened by the presence of his grandmother in the household. He has found, edited, and arranged many of the scores used in this production, and has contributed memorabilia of all sorts: playbills, press clippings, and photographs, projected along with translations on a large screen.

Bessie, praised for her “impassioned performances,” told her grandson, “There’s no such thing as an impassioned performance without a little raw material.” Judy Blazer has the raw material. She blazes across the stage as Bessie, every inch the diva as singer, actress, and dancer. Bessie is heard on tape, singing the role of Minka the maid, and Blazer takes over the song in Bessie’s sound and style, driving home the story of Minka’s successful ascendancy into the upper class. (It would have been fun to see her Salome, including the dance of the seven schmattas.)

Singing the suffragette title song Khantshe in amerike, Blazer ends by proclaiming, “Khantshe for President!” Bessie was indeed ahead of her time, and we have yet to catch up with her (though we came close recently).

Hamlet? Oy Vey …

Boris died before his grandson was born. But one feature film from the Thomashefsky era still exists, Bar-Mitzvah, and the audience was treated to impressive singing by Boris himself in a clip. For the rest of this production, he was brought to life in the wonderful acting and singing of Neal Benari. His falsetto singing of a no-show leading lady’s role in the premiere of Koldunye and his Hamlet as a Yeshiva student encountering the ghost of his father will not soon be forgotten.

Eugene Brancoveanu sang a couple of songs as the young Boris. At the end of the evening, after stories about the Thomashefsky divorce and the subsequent career of Bessie on her own, Brancoveanu returned for a moving performance of the title song from Rumshinsky’s Vi mener libn (The way men love).

Ronit Widmann-Levy rounded out the cast in several solo roles and the four-part ensembles. She and Brancoveanu were prodigies of overacting in Minkowski’s Aleksander, der kroyn prints fun yerusholaim (Alexander, Crown Prince of Jerusalem) and in Goldfaden’s Koldunye. Both were excellent additions to the cast.

In the program notes, Thomas quotes his grandmother’s reply to a question as to how she created a role: “I looked … I saw … I imagined.” He goes on to say that he tells musicians, “Play it like you’re improvising, like it was never written down.” And Friday night clarinetist Luiz Baez played some wonderful riffs. Either he was improvising himself, or the editor of the score had created those bits in an improvisatory moment. Michael Tilson Thomas was the editor. He has his grandmother’s strudel recipe: “I wash my hands, I put on my apron and take out the ingredients, and I make the strudel.”

And yet, the American Conservatory Theater opened its 41st season Tuesday night in the Geary Theater with an interactive, chamber-music version of Sweeney Todd — 10 musicians took on the work of a 27-piece orchestra, all while also singing multiple roles. Scaling down the musical, trimming it slightly, and presenting it in a Brechtian fashion with a virtual backstage view, gave the work added intensity and immediacy. Scottish director John Doyle’s production comes from London through Broadway (where it picked up a couple of Tony Awards) and to San Francisco, for its West Coast premiere before a 17-city U.S. and Canadian tour.

Sweeney Todd (David Hess) and Mrs. Lovett (Judy Kaye)

Photo by David Allen

Originally from the Victorian gossip magazine Penny Dreadful, the story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street has taken on many forms, but its essence has remained the same: a wronged man’s all-consuming, completely destructive, quest for revenge. In the Doyle production, David Hess’ portrayal of the title role assures authenticity and success: He is “scary-good” in his stage presence and his singing. He conveys the music so well that his performance is greater than the sum of its parts. That’s because even without a big voice, Hess excels at the most important aspect of musical performance: communication. The words, the meaning, and the musical line all come across: “Sweeney was smooth, Sweeney was subtle / Sweeney would blink, and rats would scuttle.”

Smooth or not, Todd is all revenge, anger, and despair. The work’s other major character, Mrs. Lovett, is a counterpoint to him, with her cheerful, romantic nature (even while grinding up body parts for “The Best Pies in London”). Broadway star Judy Kaye is quite wonderful in the role, not to mention in her tuba solos.

Sweeney Todd (David Hess) and the Beadle (Benjamin Eakeley)

Photo by David Allen

There are a couple of impressively big voices in the cast: Benjamin Magnuson as Anthony (with a searing performance of “Johanna”) and Diane DiMarzio as the Beggar Woman (also a whiz on the clarinet). Keith Buterbaugh’s Judge Turpin provides a prime Broadway performance, and Edmund Bagnell’s Tobias builds steadily to a splendid finale. Soprano Katrina Yaukey does an excellent job in the high tenor part originally assigned to Pirelli.

The lead soprano in the piece, Lauren Molina, has two major tasks — being and singing like an angel — but she did not deliver on the same level as the other cast members. Johanna, Todd’s daughter, represents a glimmer of good in the work’s hellish view of London, where “There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit / and the vermin of the world inhabit it / and its morals aren’t worth what a pig could spit.”

She has the weighty tasks of finding beauty in the midst of bestiality and making evil more human and understandable. Musically, that comes down to the difficult and central aria “Green Finch and Linnet Bird.” As in two Richard Strauss works about ugly and destructive passions, Salome and Electra, the shock of sudden, unexpected, sweepingly beautiful music in the depths of “great black pits” is all-important. But in this case, communication of the text and the music was unsuccessful, so the balance was not fully established.

The other counterpoint, humor, came across extremely well, thanks to Kaye’s singing and acting, particularly in the riotous “Little Priest” (with Hess’ equal partnership), although “By the Sea” didin’t come up to the Angela Lansbury gold standard. (Then again, Lansbury didn’t have to play bells and percussion while singing.)

Still stunning was Sondheim’s horrifying juxtaposition of hoped-for salvation from vengeance with the wiping out the wicked so that “For the rest of us death will be a relief … We all deserve to die.” It was a tough, complex show, well done.

H.M.S. Pinafore is a delightful spoof on the subjects of class, rank, and bureaucracy. The Lamplighters make the most of Gilbert’s clever lyrics and dialogue, inserting occasional contemporary references ad libitum. And in this production all the singing of Sullivan’s delectable music was definitely above average.

The role of Sir Joseph Porter, first Lord of the Admiralty, was made for Lawrence Ewing, master of the spoken and sung word and the double take, and dancer extraordinaire. His autobiography, “When I was a lad,” was a brilliant exposition of the workings of bureaucracy. Jonathan Spencer’s strong baritone lent a certain grandeur to the Captain of the Pinafore — a dignity that was sorely tried as he grappled with the difficulties of attempting to rise in society through the marriage of his daughter to Sir Joseph.

His daughter, Josephine, was winningly impersonated by the lovely Jennifer Ashworth, who possesses a beautiful voice and a sense of musical and dramatic timing to match Ewing’s. Jonathan Smucker as Ralph Rackstraw, the lowly sailor who dares to love Josephine, sang his lyrical music fervently, his tenor secure and expressive. And I loved the moment when Ralph pours out his passion in a long declaration full of arcane words and phrases, and Josephine goes into raptures over his “simple eloquence.”

The sailors made an exceptionally strong chorus, and they moved and danced with great panache. They were equally good at dancing hornpipes and “carefully on tiptoe stealing.” Sir Joseph’s sisters, cousins, and aunts, led by the excellent Cousin Hebe of Cary Ann Rosko, were all gorgeous. Sir Joseph had come to woo Josephine, and it was fun to see how quickly his female relatives were willing to abandon his interest by allying themselves with the sailors and the young lovers. As it turned out, an audience member might suspect Cousin Hebe of having had an ulterior motive.

A Host of Fine Contributors

Behrend Eilers was the villain, Dick Deadeye, determined to ruin the prospects of the lovers. He was a terrific presence — strong of voice, twisted in appearance, and expert at delivering every word so effectively that he didn’t need supertitles. Yes, the Lamplighters are using supertitles, which are mostly unnecessary but occasionally helpful. Some of Gilbert’s words go by pretty fast, and not every singer is willing or able to use a style of singing that is partly speaking, the way Lawrence Ewing does.

Katy Daniel sang Buttercup. In a production dedicated to the memory of two historic Buttercups, it can’t have been easy, but she did a good job. She sounds a bit like someone sticking to the score; I hope she will come to be more outrageous in the part. Buttercup, like many G&S mezzos, should be a scene-stealer. Chris Shuford and Ted von Pohle made some fine solo contributions, and undoubtedly added strength to the chorus.

George Thomson made his Lamplighters debut as conductor, an auspicious debut indeed, starting with a well-paced overture. A few dicey moments showed that he had a strong hand on the tiller, and he graciously allowed Sir Joseph to instruct him on occasion. Kudos also to director Barbara Heroux and choreographer Jayne Zaban. The movement of both chorus and principals is terrific, and the set, costumes, and lightning are brilliant. The orchestral playing, like the singing, is definitely above average. The entire production is a triumph.