Now entering its 101st season, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene [NYTF] will honor David S. and Sylvia Steiner (joint lead producers on Golda's Balcony starring Tovah Feldshuh for Broadway and Film) at a Gala performance of the lost 1923 Yiddish American Operetta classic THE GOLDEN BRIDE on December 8 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
The evening will begin tonight, December 8, at 5:30pm with a pre-show VIP reception 5:30pm and end with a post-performance party featuring live music by an allstar ensemble. Tickets for the Gala start at $500, available at www.nytf.org or 212.213.2120 X 203.
The Gala is a part of a 5-week-only run (December 2, 2015 to January 3, 2016), the first staged-production in over 70 years of this beloved comedic romance from the Golden Age of 2nd Ave.
Honoree DAVID S. STEINER is Chairman of Steiner Equities Group, LLC. and Steiner Building NYC, LLC., has a long and distinguished history as a real estate developer, with over 60 years of experience in the industry including owning Steiner Studios the largest US film and television production studio complex outside of Hollywood. Among the movies filmed there are The Producers: The Movie Musical and Spider-Man 3, and TV, "Boardwalk Empire" and "Girls." He also serves as a Director of The National Yiddish Book Center and a Trustee for The Actors Fund of America.
Honoree SYLVIA STEINER is a dedicated community and political activist with a particular interest in US-Israel relations. She is a member of AJC's Board of Governors as well as a chapter board member and past vice president. Her varied interests have led to leadership positions with the Garden State Arts Center Foundation, the Women's Plea for Soviet Jewry. Sylvia is also a Board Member of New York Stage & Film and a Broadway producer.
The Gala Chair is Feliks Frenkel (Chair, COJECO; Executive Board Member, UJA Federation of NY ) with Co-Chairs Thomas Blumberg (former Chairman of Hillel, and UJA Federation of NY Board of Directors), Sandra F. Cahn (co-founder of Limmud FSU and UJA-Federation of New York's Women's Executive Circle) and Carol Levin (president of SHALVA, the association for mentally and physically challenged children in Israel; Board Member, UJA Federation of NY).
In THE GOLDEN BRIDE, a beautiful young woman named Goldele, abandoned as a child, receives an unexpected inheritance and sets off on a journey from Russia across the seas to America to claim her estate, find her mother and offer her hand to the man who can help.
With music by famed Yiddish composer
Joseph Rumshinsky, libretto by Frieda Freiman and lyrics by Louis Gilrod, THE GOLDEN BRIDE is a timeless rags to riches American Jewish fairytale that takes us on a journey from the Russian shtetl to a New York City mansion. The first-class score and large-scale production at Kessler's Second Avenue Theater kept the 2,000 seat house packed following The Golden Bride's 1923 opening. This wildly popular romantic comedy continued in its success with several subsequent revivals playing through the 1940s as well as engagements nationally and internationally, but was lost to time following the Second World War. In 1984, Dr. Michael Ochs, former head of the music library at Harvard unearthed an original vocal score and manuscript for Di Goldene Kale and spent a number of years translating, researching and reconstructing this nearly-forgotten treasure.
Presented in Yiddish with English and Russian supertitles THE GOLDEN BRIDE will star a cast of 20:
Bob Ader (Broadway's All the Way Home),
Glenn Seven Allen (Broadway's Light in the Piazza),
Lisa Fishman (Off Broadway's On Second), Regina Gibson (Off Broadway's The Apple Tree),
Jillian Gottlieb (The Metropolitan Opera's Das Rheingold),
Cameron Johnson (Into the Woods), Rachel Policar (Off Broadway's HMS Pinafore),
Bruce Rebold (Off Broadway's Kiss, Me Kate), and Adam B. Shapiro (HBO's The Normal Heart) with chorus/ensemble members including Adam Kaster, Jessica Kennedy, Amy Laviolette,
Joseph Mace, Liza Miller, Isabel Nesti, Alexis Semevolos, Zachary Spiegel, Tatiana Wechsler, and Jeremy Weiss.
THE GOLDEN BRIDE creative team is comprised of direction by
Bryna Wasserman (Lies My Father Told) and NYTF Associate Director
Motl Didner (
Fyvush Finkel Live), music direction by
Zalmen Mlotek (Broadway's Those Were the Days), set design by John Dinning, costume design by Izzy Fields (Roundabout's Consent), and lighting design by
Yael Lubetzky (Broadway's
Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam), choreography by
Merete Muenter (The Megile of
Itzik Manger), libretto / score editing and translation by Michael Ochs, with casting by
Jamibeth Margolis, C.S.A. (Broadway's Phantom of the Opera, LES MISERABLES). NYTF Executive Producer Christopher Massimine (Broadway's It Shoulda Been You, American Idiot, and Soul Doctor) heads production and promotion as general manager and showrunner with
Ken Larson (FX's American Horror Story) as production manager and Sean Patrick (Roundabout's Anything Goes) as production stage manager.
THE GOLDEN BRIDE runs December 2, 2015 through January 3, 2015 on the following schedule: Wednesdays & Thursdays at 2pm & 7:30pm; Saturdays at 7:30pm; and Sundays at 2pm & 6pm with additional performances Dec. 22 & 29 at 2pm, Dec. 25 at noon, Jan. 1 at noon and a special gala Dec. 8 at 7:30pm. NOTE: no performances Dec 24 or Dec. 31, no matinees Dec. 2 or 3 and no 6pm show on Dec. 13. The Museum of Jewish Heritage is located at 36 Battery Place at First Place -- accessible from the 4/5 train at Bowling or the 1/R at Rector Street. Tickets are $40 ($35 for previews) at 866-811-4111 or
nytf.org.
Since 1915, the award-winning National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene [NYTF] has presented a window into the world of Jewish culture by engaging, educating, and igniting the imaginations of generations of theatergoers. It is the longest consecutively-producing Yiddish theatre company in the world and NYC's longest consecutively-producing performing arts company. NYTF presents plays, musicals, concerts, literary events and workshops in English, Yiddish, Ladino, Hebrew and Russian, with English and Russian supertitles accompanying most performances. Its mission is to celebrate the Jewish experience through the performing arts and to transmit a rich cultural legacy in exciting new ways.
www.nytf.org
The mission of the Museum is to educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the broad tapestry of Jewish life in the 20th and 21st centuries-before, during, and after the Holocaust. Multiple perspectives on modern Jewish history, life, and culture are presented in the Museum's unique Core Exhibition and award-winning special exhibitions. Acclaimed public programs, including discussions, films, plays, and concerts, highlight the richness of Jewish culture and ideas. The Museum's mission extends across the country and the world with Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) and initiatives with affiliate organizations: the Auschwitz Jewish Center and JewishGen.
www.mjhnyc.org
