Soul Doctor Tickets

A wonderful musical that takes us on a tour of Shlomo Carlebach's iconoclastic, but ultimately tragic life Manges to touch upon real conflicts - eg between traditional Judaism and the need for some change without disturbing the fundamentals... between the warm ecstatic Chasidic approach and the cold, cerebral Mitnagdish approcah. Strangely, Carlebach's ultimate failure seems to prove that his way of bridging the gaops didn't work ... yet on the other hand, he left the world his music...even as he destroyed his life, his family, his promise as a religious schalar A great renedering of the key elements and turning points in Carlebach's life that I had always wondered about. How did someone from the Austrian-Germanic tradition turn to ecstatic joyous music? How did an observant Jew manage to wander so far off the path? What about his personal life? the Bais Yaakov girls who were drawn ti him I frankly loved every minute of this show ... but it needs much work...some suggestions: Get rid of the first scene ... its a turn-off and is not emblematic of Shlomo's life in any way...it really doesn't work As everyone knows, the Lubavitcher Rebbe did not wear a streimel or have a Santa Claus beard. You did such a good job in retaining authenticity in many subtle ways -- eg picking up tShlomo's slight Vienese accent. The warmath of his songs... his generosity ... his irresponsibility ... his ultimate failures and success... being clear about where he went beyond halachik guidelines ...dealing with Christianity ... with other cultures, etc....so throwing in things that are plainly inaccurate ...is unnecesarily jarring. Some of the humor is misplaced. (eg Shlomo's father responding to a serious statement about living under a Nazi dictatorship with a dopey line about his 48-year marriage. It really was funny ... but unreasonable , unrealstic and therefore shattering of the theater illusion.) Sadly many of the scenes seemed amateurish --- something you'd expect in a summer camp production rather than a Broadway show. But this show has so much going for it ...I really hope you guys can make it

Soul Doctor goes through the personal journey of Shlomo Carlebach. Born into a very illustrious Rabbinical family in pre-war Germany. Even as a young child he was widely acknowledged to be one of the great minds of his generation. His evolution took him into places that no rabbi had ventured before. He wound up with a guitar in hand as part of teh folk music scene of Greenwich Village and opened a Jewish commune in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury in the sixties. His musical tunes (nigunim) have a way of piercing ones soul. Soul Doctor presents many of these tunes albeit briefly.

There were some great moments to the play, particularly the African American woman who sang jazz, as well as other music. She should be an added attraction, not the main one. The actor playing Carlebach has potential and with more practice might be fine. he has a great voice, but not great on his pronunciation of Hebrew words. The actor playing Carlebach's father ( and Carlebach at the end of his life) is terribly miscast, and has a strong negative impact since he opens and closes the play.

Possibly the worst, most denigrating, caricature filled piece of theatre ever. The bright lights in this piece, the talented singers are so wasted in this. Stay away.