New York's Yiddish theater
Subtitle: from the Bowery to Broadway
By: edited by Edna Nahshon
Contributors: Museum of the City of New York; Yivo Institute for Jewish Research
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 327
ISBN-13: 9780231176705
Subjects: Jewish theater; Exhibitions; Yiddish Theater; History
Other titles: From the Bowery to Broadway
Description: In the early decades of the twentieth century, a vibrant theatrical culture took shape on New York City's Lower East Side. Original dramas, comedies, musicals, and vaudeville, along with sophisticated productions of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Chekhov, were innovatively staged for crowds that rivaled the scene on Broadway. While these productions were in Yiddish and catered to Eastern European Jewish audiences (the largest immigrant group in the city at the time), their artistic and aesthetic creations and their play with politics and history came to influence all facets of the American stage. Vividly illustrated and with contributions from leading historians and critics, this history recounts in absorbing detail the heyday of "Yiddish Broadway" and its vital contribution to American Jewish life and its crossover to American culture. Performances grappled with Jewish nationalism, labor relations, women's rights, religious observance, acculturation, and assimilation. They reflected a range of genres, from tear-jerkers to experimental theater, and introduced American audiences to avant-garde dramatic technique.
Notes: "Published on the occasion of the exhibition New York's Yiddish theater: from the Bowery to Broadway." --Colophon.

"Featuring images from the collections of the Museum of the City of New York and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 316-321) and index.