Photo Coverage: Manhattan Museum Presents a Broadway Cabaret

The fourth year of the Museum of the City of New York's cabaret series kicked off Saturday with "Forward to Broadway," a concert celebrating the heritage of Yiddish theater and its influences on Broadway musicals. Held at the Upper East Side museum in conjunction with its exhibition "The Jewish Daily Forward: Embracing an Immigrant Community," the cabaret also served as a tribute to Sheldon Harnick, lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof, The Apple Tree and many other shows.

The program featured music that was written by Yiddish-speaking songwriters (most famously, Irving Berlin and the Gershwins) or originated by Yiddish performers, as well as newer songs from musicals about immigrants or immigrant and assimilation experiences—including Harnick's The Rothschilds and Fiorello!

Performing the songs, which came from nearly every decade of the 20th century, were Joy Lynn Matthews, seen off-Broadway last season in Our Leading Lady and Asylum; Adam Heller, whose Broadway credits include Caroline, or Change, A Class Act and Victor/Victoria; Rachel Ulanet, who appeared in LoveMusik earlier this year and played Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway; and Josh Rouah, a veteran of Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and St. Louis Muny who'll costar in Altar Boyz this fall in Houston. The singers were accompanied on piano by Lawrence Yurman, who also contributed excellent arrangements and underscoring.

The museum's cabaret series was launched in May 2004 and has so far consisted of twice-yearly productions, each with a Saturday/Sunday run. Museum director Susan Henshaw Jones announced prior to the Oct. 6 concert that Friday performances may be added due to the series' popularity; the schedule may also be expanded to more than two productions each season. "Broadway quality at decidedly un-Broadway prices," Henshaw Jones boasted of the cabarets (tickets cost $15 for the general public, $10 for museum members, seniors and students).

"This series celebrates, and indeed draws upon, the museum's amazing Theater Collection," Henshaw Jones said in her welcoming remarks. "Few people realize that the Museum of the City of New York has a Theater Collection that is virtually a complete chronology of theater in New York City, from the late 18th century to the present. I note with pride that our collections include a very important and large archive on Yiddish theater."

Michael Montel, a frequent director for York Theatre's Musicals in Mufti concerts, conceived the MCNY cabaret series and has directed every show in it. He narrated the first half of the "Forward to Broadway" concert before turning over hosting duties to Harnick, who introduced songs he wrote with composer Jerry Bock, among them "Just a Map," which was cut from The Rothschilds; "Perspective" from She Loves Me; and "Artificial Flowers" from Tenderloin (which Harnick mocked as a "typical, tearful Gay '90s ballad dripping with sentiment").

For more information about the Museum of the City of New York and its cabaret series, go to www.mcny.org or call 212-534-1672. The "Jewish Daily Forward: Embracing an Immigrant Community" exhibit is on view through Nov. 25.

The opening number was an ensemble effort, with Josh Rouah, Joy Lynn Matthews, Rachel Ulanet and Adam Heller performing the Gershwins' "Yankee Doodle Rhythm" from Strike Up the Band.

Ulanet, who has played the title role in Funny Girl regionally, sings a song originated by the real Fanny Brice (and cowritten by Irving Berlin): "Sadie Salome," from the 1909 revue The College Girls.

How did E.Y. Harburg, a poor immigrants' son from the Lower East Side, write such evocative lyrics to "April in Paris" (sung here by Heller, with Lawrence Yurman on piano)? By studying travel agency brochures. Host/director Michael Montel quoted Harburg: "Most people think I was at the Café du Jou Jou looking at the Eiffel Tower when it was written, but I was really in Lindy's looking at the marquee at the Winter Garden."

The Gershwins saluted four Russian Jews who rose to world fame as violinists in their 1921 comic ditty "Mischa, Jascha, Toscha, Sascha" (as in: Elman, Heifetz, Seidel, Jacobson), performed by the whole cast.

Musical director Yurman accompanies Matthews on "Blame It on the Summer Night" from Rags, Stephen Schwartz and Charles Strouse's 1986 musical about Eastern European Jewish immigrants. More recent Broadway musicals were also represented in the cabaret by the "Tune You Can Hum" excerpt from Merrily We Roll Along's "Opening Doors," performed in a medley about songwriting with Irving Berlin's "Simple Melody."

"The Name's La Guardia," with Heller (left) taking the Fiorello! title role, was the first Harnick song performed in the concert.

Fiorello La Guardia, who was half Jewish, seeks votes from Jewish constituents in the Yiddish verse of "The Name's La Guardia," which also has a verse in Italian.

Harnick shared tidbits about his collaborations, including that George Abbott initially turned down the offer to direct Fiorello! because "he didn't want to do a show about politics, but he changed his mind when [producers Robert] Griffith and [Harold] Prince told him that La Guardia had not one but two love stories." Matthews then performed the poignant "When Did I Fall in Love," sung in Fiorello! by La Guardia's dying first wife.

From Harnick's masterpiece Fiddler on the Roof, Rouah performs "Miracle of Miracles."

Harnick looks on approvingly as Matthews sings his "I Love a Cop" from Fiorello! 

Harnick moved from lectern to music stand to sing the concert finale, "In My Own Lifetime," Mayer Rothschild's finale in The Rothschilds. Harnick revealed that he and the show's other creators fudged the facts of Mayer Rothschild's life to keep Hal Linden on stage longer: In the play Rothschild dies later than he did in real life, because the actual year of his death occurs early in Act 2. Linden would win a Tony for the role.

Rouah and Matthews and the rest of the cast joined the songwriter for the last verse of "In My Own Lifetime." Harnick stated, "The lyrics were appropriate for the show, of course, but they also said some things I very much wanted to say myself." The still-timely lyrics from the beautiful 1970 song: "In my own lifetime, I want to see the fighting cease…In my own lifetime, I want to see the walls come down and then I'll rest."

Three men who made the event possible: musical director Yurman, director Montel and lyricist Harnick.