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The BroadsheetDAILY – 3/23/22 – New Production of Museum of Jewish Heritage Recalls 1930s Saga That Resonates Today

Posted on March 23, 2022
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The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper
Harmonic Convergence
New Production of Museum of Jewish Heritage Recalls 1930s Saga That Resonates Today
Longtime songwriting partners Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman have collaborated on “Harmony,” now in previews at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (photo credit: Julieta Cervantes)
Previews begin tonight for the seven-week run of Harmony, a musical by Barry Manilow and his longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (36 Battery Place, near First Place).
The production recalls the story of the Comedian Harmonists, “a singing group that was hugely popular in the 1920s and 30s,” Mr. Manilow recalls. “They were very inventive—a combination of the Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers. They made 13 movies, along with dozens and dozens of records. But nobody remembers them today.”
Mr. Sussman reflects that, “when Barry and I write a big project, I need to be able to know what the spine sentence is—the guiding sentence for what this piece is about. I knew immediately this was about the quest for harmony in the broadest sense of the word, during what turned out to be the most discordant period of human history.”
“Their success was meteoric,” Mr. Manilow adds. “They sang with Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker, and sold millions of records, while playing the greatest concert halls in the world.”
“But they were three Jews and three gentiles,” Mr. Sussman continues. “And once Hitler came to power in 1933, they were on a collision course with history. The first act of the show is about a golden age, which we deconstruct in the second act.”
Recalling their collaboration process, Mr. Sussman notes, “when I came to a point where I thought there should be a song, I would insert a paragraph with a title idea or phrase, then send it to Barry to see if he could make any sense of it. He sent me back 17 melodies, 14 or 15 of which are now in the show.”
Mr. Manilow acknowledges, “it took me a while to dive into this world, but eventually I was living it—steeping myself in 1930s music and literature.”
About the production by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) now being staged at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Mr. Sussman muses, “we know this building was built to encourage remembering. So we have the right place. And now, with what’s happening in Ukraine, we have the right time.”
“There are things that I wrote several years ago that now might be construed as writing to the headlines,” he adds. “But it’s the other way around—this was written earlier, and now the headlines are mirroring it.”
Both Mr. Manilow and Mr. Sussman cite as an inflection point that rings with contemporary, topical resonance a scene in second act when the Comedian Harmonists return to Germany from Copenhagen, and their passports are confiscated at the border. The three Jewish members of the group are warned that, “you are forbidden to leave Germany again without special permission,” but then offered an alternative. “The German border guard gives them the choice of going back to Poland, where they had been born,” Mr. Sussman recalls, “and asks them, ‘why don’t you go back to where you came from?’”
The cast of “Harmony” in rehearsal with Mr. Manilow and Mr. Sussman
(photo credit: Julieta Cervantes)
Looking back on his 60-year career (which has included 51 Top 40 singles and 13 number one hits), Mr. Manilow says, “I would have been happy just being a musician—I wanted to be an arranger like Nelson Riddle, or a composer like Jule Styne. I never thought about making records. And I’m still waiting to feel like I’ve made it. So I knew my life was going to be about music, but I never predicted it would be like this.”
About his decades-long partnership with Mr. Manilow, Mr. Sussman says, “the trick that Barry taught me for pop songs is to imagine a scene and then write the song like it’s for that scene in a musical. Then you get rid of the original scene you had imagined, but you have a song.”
Mr. Manilow adds, “with pop songs, you are either stuck with ‘I love’ or ‘I miss you,’ and that’s it. So you need a different starting point that gives you a story.” This was the method that yielded “Copacabana (At the Copa),” perhaps the best-known of the many songs they have created together.
Harmony stars musical theater veterans Chip Zien (Into the Woods) and Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera), and is both directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Warren Carlyle (After Midnight), who also choreographed the current Broadway production of The Music Man.
Fresh from a critically acclaimed 2019 production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, the NYTF is presenting Harmony in English. Now celebrating its 107th season, NYTF is the longest consecutively producing theatre in American and the world’s oldest continuously operating Yiddish theatre company.
Previews of Harmony continue through April 13, and the show’s run will conclude on May 8, 2022. For tickets to Harmony, please browse NYTF.org or call 855-449-4658.
Matthew Fenton
Not a Penny for Tribute?
Community-Focused Cultural Center Faces Possible Closure
The 9/11 Tribute Museum, a highly regarded local cultural institution, is grappling with the prospect of imminent closure, according to chief executive officer and co-founder, Jennifer Adams-Webb, who told the Broadsheet, “without a donor or partner stepping forward, we are unable to sustain the 9/11 Tribute Museum with current visitation. The 9/11 Tribute Museum has served as a support for thousands of survivors, first responders, families and residents who were all directly affected by September 11. It will be a substantial loss to New York City and the community of support.” To read more…
Banks Heist
Lower Manhattan Students Mobilize to Demand Return of Park Space Beneath Brooklyn Bridge
On March 15, a team of student leaders from the Urban Assembly Maker Academy, a charter school located in Lower Manhattan, presented to the Waterfront, Parks, and Cultural Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) a plan for reopening the Brooklyn Bridge Banks Park, located in the shadow of the iconic span that stretches across the East River from City Hall.
Amy Piller, the principal of the Urban Assembly Maker Academy (headquartered alongside the Brooklyn Bridge, within the Murry Bergtraum Campus, on Pearl Street) began by noting, “most of our students go out to eat at lunchtime. Particularly now, in light of the pandemic, there are really limited places where they can go.” To read more…
Eyes to the Sky
March 21 – April 3, 2022
Equinox Sun, Spring Star Arcturus rising, Solar Orbiter’s closest approach
We are two days past the Vernal Equinox (aequus = equal and nox = night), the astronomical first day of spring in the northern hemisphere when the rising Sun (due east on the horizon) and the setting Sun (due west) trace an arc in the sky that brings about equal day and night. Our star’s equinox trajectory is halfway between the winter and summer solstices, the shortest and longest days of the year, respectively.
To read more…
This Week’s Calendar
Wednesday March 23
7PM
Innovation, Chaos, and Luxury: Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 -256 BCE)
China Institute
Led by Ben Wang, CI’s Senior Lecturer in Language and Humanities, this free virtual workshop is designed for K-12 educators (though we welcome all to attend) to help advance a deeper understanding of the uniqueness of Chinese classical poetry. In addition, by sharing his personal collection of the rare original couplet in calligraphy, Mr. Wang will showcase how the calligraphic art form expresses meaning and personal style, while capturing the moments of a feeling.Free
Thursday March 24
7PM
Tavern Trivia Night
Fraunces Tavern Museum 54 Pearl Street
Round up your friends and test your knowledge of the American Revolution! Brush up on your revolutionary history and complete to win some great prizes! Free
7PM
Jazz at the Poster Museum
Grammy Award-winning drummer Robby Ameen has lived in Tribeca since the early 90s and has established a recording and touring career stretching from Dizzy Gillespie to Paul Simon to Ruben Blades. See Robby and his band at Philip Williams Posters, 52 Warren Street. $20, $10 students; with complimentary wine. For reservations, 212-513-0313 or robbyameen@gmail.com
‘A Decade of Dust’
Rally Planned for Sunday to Oppose City Plan to Build World’s Tallest Jail in Lower Manhattan
Opponents of the City’s plan to build the world’s tallest jail in Chinatown plan to rally Sunday (March 20) in Columbus Park (near Worth and Baxter Streets) at 1:00 pm to voice their concerns about the risk that the project poses to the surrounding Chinatown community. To read more…
Preservation as Privatization
Historic, Publicly Owned Battery Maritime Building Has Reopened, But Only for Paying Customers
Community Board 1 (CB1) is raising questions about the use of what was supposed to be public space at the Battery Maritime Building, located at Ten South Street.
The publicly owned structure, located next to the Staten Island Ferry, is a landmarked Beaux Art ferry terminal built in 1909. It served for three decades as the gateway for boats taking passengers across the East River, but after commuters and vehicles gained direct access to Manhattan with the advent of bridges, tunnels, and subways, ferry usage declined and the building fell into disrepair.
To read more…
Click on the image above to read about the BPCA’s work in maintaining Battery Park City’s parks and public spaces.
CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found
To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com
SEEKING LIVE-IN ELDER CARE
12 years experience, refs avail. I am a loving caring hardworking certified home health aide
Marcia 347 737 5037
marmar196960@gmail.com
AVAILABLE
NURSES’ AIDE
20+ years experience
Providing Companion and Home Health Aide Care to clients with dementia.Help with grooming, dressing and wheelchair assistance. Able to escort client to parks and engage in conversations of desired topics and interests of client. Reliable & Honest
FT/PT Flexible Hours
References from family members. Charmaine
charmainecobb@optimum.net or 347-277-2574
NOTARY PUBLIC IN BPC
$2.00 per notarized signature.
Text Paula
@ 917-836-8802
HAVE MORE FUN PARENTING
Learn how to raise a capable child and reduce friction at home.
Come learn parenting
the Positive Discipline way!
ML Fiske is a
Certified PD Parent Educator.
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NANNY WITH OVER 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE
Reliable, nurturing and very attentive. Refs Avail.
Full or Part time
Maxine 347-995-7896
dreamnanny123@gmail.com
SEEKING LIVING/
WORK SPACE
Ethical and respectable gentleman, an IT Wizard, seeks a living/work space in BPC. Can be a Computer help to you and your business, or will guarantee $1,500 for rental. Reciprocal would be great!
Please contact:
914-588-5284
HAVE SPACE?
 Folk dance group seeks empty space of 400+ sq feet for 2 hours of weekly evening dance practice.
Average attendance is 10 women. This is our hobby; can pay for use of the space.
Call 646 872-0863 or find us on Facebook. Ring O’Bells Morris.
NURSES AIDE
Kind loving and honest Nurse’s aide seeking FT/PT job. Experience with Alzheimer’s patients
Excellent references available please call Dian at 718-496-6232
HOUSEKEEPING/ NANNY/ BABYSITTER
Available for PT/FT. Wonderful person, who is a great worker.
Refs avail.
Worked in BPC.
Call Tenzin 347-803-9523
PERSONAL TRAINING,
REFLEXOLOGY,
PRIVATE STUDIO
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Esplanade or Espla-Nada?
City Says Planned Improvements to East River Waterfront Are On Hold
The February 22 meeting of Community Board 1 (CB1) included an update about long-planned improvements to the East River Esplanade, some of which are being cancelled.
Paul Goldstein, the chair of CB1’s Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee, said, “we got a report from Economic Development Corporation [EDC] regarding some of their waterfront assets and projects that are ongoing—or not.” (The EDC is a not-profit corporation controlled by City government, which oversees development of assets, such as publicly owned property.)
“Unfortunately, a lot this project is not moving ahead for a variety of reasons,” Mr. Goldstein explained, “the biggest one being that the City is focusing much more on resiliency, and they don’t want to go ahead with improvements that may interfere with that.” To read more…
Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets
Tribeca Greenmarket
Greenwich Street & Chambers Street
Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm
Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm
Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round
Bowling Green Greenmarket
Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green
Broadway & Whitehall St
Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round
Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.
The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.
The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market
91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.
212-349-1380 info@fultonstallmarket.org
Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.
Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.
SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.
Today in History
March 23
A space shuttle docks at the Russian Mir space station. On March 23, 2001, having fulfilled its 15-year mission, the Mir station was decommissioned. It reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, and fell into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech – “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia.
1801 – Tsar Paul I of Russia is struck with a sword, then strangled, and finally trampled to death inside his bedroom at St. Michael’s Castle.
1806 – After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their “Corps of Discovery” begin their arduous journey home.
1857 – Elisha Otis’s first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City.
1909 – Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
1919 – In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
1933 – The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act of 1933, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
1965 – NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States’ first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
1983 – Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
1994 – A US Air Force (USAF) F-16 aircraft collides with a USAF C-130 at Pope Air Force Base and then crashes, killing 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground. This later became known as the Green Ramp disaster.
2001 – The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
Births
1514 – Lorenzino de’ Medici, Italian writer and assassin (d. 1548)
1769 – William Smith, English geologist and cartographer (d. 1839)
1823 – Schuyler Colfax, American journalist and politician, 17th Vice President of the United States (d. 1885)
So, history buffs, quick… who was the 17th president of the United States?
1912 – Wernher von Braun, German-American physicist and engineer (d. 1977)
1929 – Roger Bannister, English runner, neurologist and academic (d. 2018)
1952 – Rex Tillerson, American businessman, engineer and diplomat; former United States Secretary of State
1954 – Kenneth Cole, American fashion designer, founded Kenneth Cole Productions
Deaths
851 – Zhou Chi, Chinese historian and politician (b. 793)
1801 – Paul I of Russia (b. 1754)
2001 – Margaret Jones, British archaeologist (b. 1916)
2011 – Elizabeth Taylor, actress, socialite and humanitarian (b. 1932)
2016 – Joe Garagiola, Sr., American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1926)
2016 – Ken Howard, American actor (b. 1944)
Credit: Wikipedia and other internet and non-internet sources
The Broadsheet Inc.
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