A Wonderful Musical ...a Jarring Real Life Tragedy
by HappyHarry on 1/5/12Colony Theater - Miami BeachA 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