Synopsis:

The prologue takes place in and near a cafe in Odessa, where a troupe of Yiddish actors have gathered. Shloimke, the comedian, longs for his beloved Sorele Hertzberg as the troupe prepares to leave on tour, first to London, then to America. He receives a letter from his sister, informing him that his father, a wealthy man in Tiraspol, has died. Shloimke, anticipating a sizable inheritance, fantasizes about becoming rich. The other actors also imagine how they would spend Shloimke's wealth.

ACT I

Shloimke arrives at his sister's house in a white suit, frightening his meek brother-in-law, who thinks the dead father has returned. Esther informs her brother-in-law that he is to receive only a fifth of the money left, and that only by the goodness of her heart. She gives him some dash, a promissory note to a bank, and two I.O.U.'s that Shloimke soon discovers are worthless. After calling his sister a thief and a swindler, Shloimke swears to keep those I.O.U.'s until his death, when he will demand his rightful inheritance in heaven.

We next see Shloimke twenty years later. Old, impoverished and sick from excessive drinking, he returns to his sister's house. She now has a grown daughter and a teenage son who await their mother's return from a trip to New York. Shloimke entertains the boy, Mendele, and gets acquainted with Misha, the bookkeeper, and the other family members. Esther-Rochel, returning from America, is appalled to find Shloimke in her home and throws him out.

Misha is in love with Esther's daughter, Oliyetchke, but Esther has other plans for her pretty daughter -- she is to become Americanized before the arrival of Esther's New York banker, Semyon Kozlin. Esther is certain there will be a match.

ACT II

Kozlin arrives for the Purim holiday. Shloimke has prepared a Purim pageant in which he plays King Ahasuerus. Golde, the maid, plays Queen Vashti. Misha is Mordecai. Oliyetchke is Queen Esther, and Mendele plays the villain Haman. During the play Shloimke recognizes the banker from New York, and when he removes his mask, the banker recognizes him as well.

All is ready for the engagement party of Kozlin and Oliyetchke. Misha comes to say farewell to his beloved, and Kozlin walks in as the two kiss goodbye. But Kozlin is ready to forgive her.

When Esther questions Misha about the family, Shloimke realizes that Misha is his own lost son. He decides it is best not to make this known to anyone. aware of Misha's love for Oliyetchke, Shloimke convinces the heartbroken young man to come with him when he exposes Kozlin as a many-times married man. Kozlin leaves in a huff and the wedding is to be called off -- but why not have a celebration after all for Misha and Oliyetchke?

Shloimke tells Esther-Rochel to give his rightful share of the inheritance to the young couple with whom he hopes to live, and all rejoice in the union of the two lovers.
 

A review of this play appeared in the New York Times on November 18, 1990:

Nostalgic Yiddish Musical
by Richard F. Shepard

It speaks Yiddish only, but the Folksbiene Theater is the oldest continuing theatrical company in New York, in any language. The Folksbiene, even when it does comedy, as in its new seventy-fifth anniversary production, a musical called "Father's Inheritance," has always been serious about its undertakings; after all, its first production in 1915 was a Yiddish version of Ibsen's "Enemy of the People."

Anyone who is devoted to the Yiddish language, who will travel to hear a well-spoken  Yiddish word, will, of course, beat a path to the comfortable Folksbiene Playhouse, in the Central Synagogue's modern building on East 55th Street. Those whose Yiddish is faltering may resort to renting the simultaneous translation device, which presents the action in complete, almost scholarly detail, explaining the genesis of terms used, like "pogrom," or references to persons like Shulamit, the biblical beauty.

"Fathr's Inheritance" is a musical comedy adapted by Emil Gorovets, who also wrote the lyrics and music and who stars in it. Mr. Gorovets has taken it from "Shloimke the Charlatan," a play by the Yiddish playwright Jacob Gordin that was first staged in New York in 1896.

As for the plot, what is there to say? A poor actor in Odessa, a man of most voices, learns that his father has died, but when he gets back to his hometown, his sister hoodwinks him out of his inheritance. Suddenly it's twenty years later, and he has come home again, just in time to prevent his niece's wedding to an American man who turns out to be the son he never knew.

Mr. Gorovets is a substantial presence in the lead, although, with a voice that makes a lyric do more than merely speak, he comes across more convincingly as singer than as actor. But he does project a sort of lugubrious likeability.

The performer who sets the pace is Zypora Spaisman, that wonderful stalwart of the Folksbiene and other Yiddish theaters whose deadpan shoulder-shrugging acidity adds a necessary comic touch to the proceedings. Sandy Levitt also infuses a fortunate spirit of overstated comedy in his burlesque interpretation of the American villain's role. Irina Fogelson, as the maid, Golde, is an upbeat voice in the proceedings both in song and dialogue.

Yevgeny Lanskoye, the director, has done some imaginative staging of a show that might otherwise founder in static talk and heavy artifice. The insertion of a Purim play within the play itself is charming. The dances choreographed by Felix Fibich and performed by Mane Rebelo and Fausto Matias also enhance the play.

If the plot is a frail vehicle, it does carry Mr. Gorovets' lines well enough. Some of them are clever and observant, like the observation that a Jew without money in London is a poor Jew, while a Jew without money in Russia is a "Kasrilivke bourgeois," referring to the fabled town created by Sholem Aleichem; the segment that compares English with Yiddish is also amusing, as when "eye" is equated with "Ay, yi, yi." The music has the traditional Yiddish theater beat, and those with a tendency to keep time with their feet will find it as comfortable as an old shoe.

"Father's Inheritance" is a new musical, but also a veritable revival of shows that no longer exist. Over the years, the Folksbiene has demonstrated an uncommon theatrical versatility and, on the seventy-fifth birthday, one can onlys ay, as they do in Yiddish circles, "Bis 120," which translates, very loosely, as "May you live until 120."