First Subway
Passenger
Second Subway Passenger
Third Subway Passenger
Khatzkel Hungershtoltz
Jack Flame
Sarah Hungershtoltz
Yossele Hungershtoltz
Gabriel Dobzhansky
David
Reizele Hungershtoltz
Miss Subway 1968
Mr. Marlboro
Miss Clairol
Mr. Chock Full of Nuts
Miss Anacin
Subway Conductor |
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Sonia Zomina
Ben Feivelowitz
Max Pollack
Joshua Zeldis
Jack Rechtzeit
Zypora Spaisman
Avremele (Avi) Hoffman
Morris Adler
Nathan Lieblich
Irene Dunkel
Dina Schwartzman
Max Pollack
Sonia Zomina
Ben Feivelowitz
Sarah Stabin
Bard Wechsler |
Subway passengers, men
and women
Time: Present
Place: Prologue -A
subway train
Act 1 -- Khatzkel's home
in the Bronx
Act 2 -- Flame's
advertising company as Madison Avenue
Epilogue -- A subway
train and station
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Folksbiene Yiddish Troupe Opens New Season With an
Updated Comedy
by Richard F. Shepard
The venerable and usually
sober-sided Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre opened its new
season on Friday in a light-hearted vein, its first
comedy in many years, "Bronx Express, 1968."
The original "Bronx
Express" was written by Osip Dymow and was first
performed in the 1920s, when the immigrant was still
running full-tilt into America and Mammon. The theme is
kept in Abraham Schulman's new version, directed by
David Licht, with a dramatically effective subway car
set, the work of Harry Baum.
The story still has the
flavor of those original years, despite the
modernization. Khatzkel, a humble Bronx button-factory
worker with a penchant for sleeping in the subway on the
way hoe to the Bronx, meets a landsman, Jack Flame
(formerly Yankele Flames), on the train.
The Bronx? Flame is
shocked. That's not America. America is Madison avenue,
Wall Street. Flame is an advertising man. "Those who
bluff make millions, those who are bluffed make
buttons."
Khatzkel is seduced by the
promise of millions and goes into advertising to make it
big, big, big. He chucks home and hearth and wheels and
deals with Mr. Marlboro, Miss Anacin, Miss Clairol, Miss
Subways. He becomes rich and miserable. But he's lucky.
It's a dream and he wakes up in the comfortable Bronx.
Joshua Zeldis, one of the
Folksbiene's yeoman troupers, has a knowing air of
bewilderment and bedazzlement. Jack Rechtzeit has a
wonderful evening as the flashy, loud-mouthed
allrightnik. Flame, who leers, emotes and gesticulates
throughout for an amusing performance. Others in the
cast measure up, including a little boy, Avremele
Hoffman, who plays the young son and displays a sense of
humor.
Although "Bronx Express,
1968" is somewhat dated and overlong, it has an appeal
for anyone who can think back to the clash of values
that the immigrant, whether religious or politically
idealistic, faced then and ponder on the conflict the
grandchildren are having today. |