To Life, the spirited and entertaining musical currently on offer from the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, presents a briskly paced selection of greatest hits and lesser known but no less pleasing numbers from the Jewish-American Songbook of the 20th century.
The cast of To Life, from left, Gabi Epstein, Shawn Wright, Patrick Cook & Charlotte Moore.
Cast members Charlotte Moore, Shawn Wright, Patrick Cook and Gabi Epstein do an admirable job of performing the music of Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor and Fanny Brice in Act 1. Nor do they flag as they move through the distinctly different trajectory of Act 2, which presents many little-known postwar Broadway gems as well as an assortment of songs from Fiddler on the Roof that serve to reinforce the act’s “life-cycle” theme.
Early on, show architects Avery Saltzman and Tim French introduce the notion (via a number from Spamalot, the show’s only contemporary reference) that any musical endeavour on Broadway cannot possibly succeed without Jews. Even with only piano accompaniment, To Life easily demonstrates the aptness of this thesis. (The two grand pianos that are the set’s main decoration are played by Mark Camilleri and Jeffrey Huard.)
Act 1 features, among other trademark numbers, Cantor’s Makin’ Whoopee and If You Knew Susie, Tucker’s Some of These Days, Red Hot Mama and 50 Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong, Jolson’s April Showers, Mammy and Sonny Boy, and Brice’s I’d Rather Be Blue, Second-hand Rose and My Man. While the cast do not pretend to be impersonators and Camilleri as musical arranger is not a period purist, their renditions usually satisfy.
(As if showing the production belongs to our day more than the periods from whence it sprung, the show steers clear of any politically incorrect depiction of Jolson in blackface, yet breezily delivers a funny gay allusion in Cooking Breakfast For the One I Love that would have closed down the house 75 years ago.)
Between the most recognizable iconic songs are a variety of more obscure tunes, many bearing the cheap brilliant sheen of Tin Pan Alley. These amusing numbers include Josephine Please No Lean Upon the Bell, Who Paid the Rent for Mr. Rip Van Winkle, Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday on a Saturday Night, and Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers.
Besides its somewhat overindulgent homage to Fiddler, Act 2 pays deserving tribute to some lovely and largely forgotten material mined from such Broadway shows as The Rothschilds (Bock-Harnick), The Bar Mitzvah Boy (Styne-Black), Falsettos (Finn) and Funny Girl (Styne-Merrill). The thematic life-cycle approach holds the material together well.
For me, the show-stopper of Act 1 is My Yiddishe Momma, sung in Yiddish and English by Wright and Cook. Anyone who has heard Tucker’s Yiddish version knows what a punch the mamaloshen adds to the number, which already has a high emotional quotient. Epstein’s lovely emotional rendition of Miss Marmelstein, from I Can Get It For You Wholesale, seemed to be an audience favourite in Act 2.
It wasn’t just that the evening’s musical compass changed so often and evocatively from major to minor that seemed to make this world première production a success. The draw of its iconic quartet of legendary performers – a veritable Mount Rushmore of show business – is still palpable, as is the genius of composers and lyricists like Gus Kahn, Sammy Kahn, Billy Rose, Sam M. Lewis, et al. (No matter that the show entirely sidestepped Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen, and only brought in one Gershwin tune, Swannee.)
To Life plays at the Jane Mallet Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre, through May 29. Tickets, 416-466-7723, www.stlc.com
