TO LIFE: A BROADWAY CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LIFE conceived by Avery Saltzmand and Tim French (Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company). At the Jane Mallett (27 Front East). To May 29. $42.50-$85.50. 416-366-7723, hgjewishtheatre.com. See Listing. Rating: NNN
When I first heard about avery Saltzman and Tim French’s stage tribute to Jewish musicals, I had to laugh. I mean, with all due respect to Cole Porter, aren’t most musicals Jewish?
But the cabaret-style To Life: A Broadway Celebration Of Jewish Life isn’t really about the musicals and doesn’t just troll the canon for great stuff written by Jewish composers. It honours some of Broadway’s most memorable performers and, in a section about the life cycle, revives some great songs that, because they came from shows that failed, aren’t so well known.
The show begins with Spamalot’s irreverent You Won’t Succeed On Broad-way (If You Don’t Have Any Jews), but then the skilled quartet of singer/actors focuses on recalling Fan-ny Bryce, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker and Al Jolson.
The idea is a good one and the material is strong, but this section could have used some context. What is it about the Jewish experience and/or Jewish values that fuels the creativity of these major artists? What do these performers have in common? True, there are over 35 songs referenced in the first act alone, but some between-song patter could have given the first act more coherence.
As it is, Charlotte Moore triumphs with a kick-ass performance of Tucker’s Some Of These Days and Gabi Epstein almost manages to make you forget Streisand when evoking Bryce.
Speaking of the Greatest Star, To Life’s second act uses Broadway tunes to illustrate the stages of life, and many are from Funny Girl. Saltzman and French solve the problem of avoiding those odious comparisons to Streisand by giving a Yiddish counterpoint to My Man and by getting all four performers involved in a knockout anthemic version of People.
In fact, To Life is strongest when the cast sings in close harmony as an ensemble, which doesn’t happen until a little too late in the first act. But once they’re belting out those Jolson hits, the show starts hitting all the right notes
Credit the creators for unearthing some great material in the second act, including The Bar Mitzvah Of Elliott Green, from Jule Styne and Don Black’s 1978 dud The Bar Mitzvah Boy, and New Words, from Maury Yeston’s otherwise forgettable One, Two Three, Four, Five.
This show demands a ton of stamina from its cast. Too bad Patrick Cook flags a little towards the end. But that’s a small cavil with performances that are consistently strong. Shawn Wright – even when he doesn’t sing a word, as in An Old Man – has a great presence. He and Moore are the bright lights here. That’s because their acting chops are as strong as their voices. Which is what great cabaret requires.
