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as: "Neshome'le," "Toyre'le,"
"Yidele," "Pintele," and the plays indeed were
called: "Di neshome fun mayn folk (The Soul of My
People)," "Dos toyre'le," and "Dos pintele yid."
Of all the plays with religious
character, the most successful was "Dos pintele yid."
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The first night that they
performed "Dos pintele yid," it was a great failure. When the
author of play, M. Zeifert, saw what they made from his play, he
begged Thomashefsky, that he should remove his name from the
play, and he renounced the royalties.
"Dos pintele yid" went on for an
entire season to overfilled houses. Not only in America, but
also in the entirety of Europe, where they played "Dos pintele
yid" it created income.
The song, "Yidele dayn kroyz iz
dos pintele yid," has been sung until the current day at
every bar mitzvah celebration. It comes there indeed for a bar
mitzvah, where the bar-mitzvah boy sings the song.
The bar-mitzvah boy was then
played by Thomashefsky's son Harry. It is worth mentioning that
when "Dos pintele yid" was played in Chicago, the bar-mitzvah
boy was played by the current, famous radio and television star
Barry Gray. He remembers until now the song, "Yidele dayn kroyz
iz dos pintele yid." He does not need to be begged for a
long time now. As soon as "Pintele yid" is mentioned, he
immediately sings the song with the words. He indeed says that
this was his first acquaintance with theatre and theatre people.
In "Pintele yid," boys used to
march across the theatre with Torah scholars, and the large
audience, when they saw Torah scholars, used to stand up.
In each of the Torah plays there
was a religious or an Eretz Yisrael musical number -- such as "Men
darf nit keyn kananen, keyn gever, men darf nokh a yidish
milyoner (You Don't Need Cannons, You Don't Need Weapons,
You Need a Jewish Army)," or, "Tsion, tsion mayn heylig land
(Zion, Zion, My Holy Land)," "Dos iz di neshome fun mayn folk
(This is the Soul of My People)."
I once asked Thomashefsky, "Tell
me [why], the entire winter season you sing 'Zion, My Holy
Land,' Eretz yisrael ikh benk nokh dir (The Land of Israel, I
Yearn For You),' and when it comes to summer, you go on your
vacation to Paris, Berlin, Warsaw"? He answered me that Eretz
Israel
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to me is a holy love, and I am
afraid to touch it."
Thomashefsky did not stop at
anything when it came to the theatre. He performed from the
greatest nonsense to the greatest classical works, such as
"Hamlet," "Huguenots," "Di veber (The Weavers)," and he
treated all of them with the same seriousness and enthusiasm.
He did not think about anyone's
opinion about a performance of a new play, especially he did not
like actors' criticisms.
When he used to read a new play
for the company, he used to say to them, I don't want to hear
your criticisms. Whether you like it or not, we play the play.
Many times this habit was very risky, but he did not stop for
anything.
In the first years of my being in
America, I was obsessed with the performance of Richard Wagner's
sacred opera, "Parsifal," in the Metropolitan Opera House.
The opera, "Parsifal," is played
every year on "Good Friday," very rarely on other days. I
conveyed to Thomashefsky my enthusiasm for the sacred music and
the grandiose performance of the opera, "Parsifal." When I
finished my enthusiastic account of the opera, "Parsifal,"
Thomashefsky said: "If the opera is as good as you tell me, I
should perform it at my People's Theatre." I tried to explain to
him that neither the action nor the music is for Jews. He jumps
up furiously and starts streaming dramatically: "Hamlet is for
Jews? "Othello," "Di royber (The Robbers)" by Schiller,
is for Jews? Everything is for Jews!" And thus speaking he soon
brought over his translator, Michael Goldberg, and commanded: "I
want you to translate the opera, 'Parsifal,' into a pure Yiddish,
because Wagner was an anti-Semite, and I want his opera,
'Parsifal,' to be performed in a pure Yiddish."
He immediately ordered an
orchestra of thirty musicians, a chorus of fifty, and a
conductor from the Metropolitan Opera House.
When Yosl Edelstein, who then was
Thomashefsky's partner, heard this, he grabbed both cheeks and
began to ask Thomashefsky: "Borisl, tatele, what do
you want to do on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a goyishe
(Gentile-like) play? The Jews obviously will flee from us." And
he asked him further: "Do you want to make the other managers
rich, and you want to make me unhappy?"
Thomashefsky answered: "Yosl
Edelstein, throughout the years I have made you happy, so that
one year I may make you unhappy." And Edelstein said, "In our
People's Theatre Wagner's opera, 'Parsifal,' goes on during Rosh
Hashanah." They began to hold rehearsals, the chorus sang all
of the songs from the opera. The orchestra played the original
music, but the actors, instead of singing the arias and
recitatives, spoke their roles in a dramatic form. Thomashefsky
played 'Parsifal,' Bela Gudinsky played "Kundri," Boaz Young
played a priest. The entire company of the People's Theatre
participated. The play was played virtually as if it was in the
Metropolitan Opera House. All the English newspapers came out
with big headlines: "Parsifal on the Bowery."
The production cost in the heavy
thousands. When Jews on Rosh Hashanah from the shuls came to the
People's Theatre, they saw clerks with photographers and heard
the harsh Wagnerian choral singing. But Thomashefsky carried it
off. After the first couple of performances of "Parsifal,"
Thomashefsky called in the manager, Yosl Edelstein, and said,
"Yosele! Have no fear, on Sukkos we will play a genuine, Yiddish
play in which they will sing and dance. The Jews will want to be
resurrected." Edelstein answered: "Believe me, Boris, I also
want to be resurrected." |
