Friday, January 16th, 2009
Temple Valley Beth Shalom
Ghetto Tango - 7pm
Los Angeles CAGhetto Tango with Adrienne Cooper
Zalmen Mlotek: Calendar
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
Valley Cities Jewish Community Center
A Musical History of The Yiddish Theater - 9:30am-12pm
14701 Friar St.Van Nuys CA 91411
USA
Price: $8 members- $10 non-members
Join Zalmen Mlotek, the Artistic Director of the country's only National Yiddish-Theater Folksbiene, in a multi-media Hysterical and Historical Edu-tainment about the Yiddish Theater with interactive audience participation!
Hailed as the ''runaway hit'' of the Berkeley Jewish Music Festival, this elegant piece by Zalmen Mlotek celebrates the Jewish musical accent in American theater. Spanning all genre of Yiddish theater, you will hear music from the wine cellars of Romania, Yiddish versions of operetta arias , humorous vaudeville ballads, backstage renditions of Fiddler on the Roof, the originals of klezmer music, and a special Yiddish – English tribute to Gilbert and Sullivan!
Audiences are fascinated as Mlotek also transforms Yiddish melodies into Irving Berlin, Cab Calloway and George Gershwin jazz numbers.
Hear how songs like ''Vatch Your Step" (1911)or “Fifty Fifty” (1912),or Lebn Zol Kolumbus (Long Live Columbus) helped new immigrants adjust to Di Goldene Medine (The Golden Land).
Hear how the vaudeville houses on the Lower East Side became the Golden Age of 2nd Avenue, where Yiddish theaters and shows entertained thousands of people all eager to have a connection with the families and the lives they left behind in the old country.
All songs are translated or have supertitles shown on a screen along with priceless photos and documents of those years. Suitable for universities, community centers and major music festivals, performed by Mr Mlotek from the piano.