Really Upsetting: Bruce Adler dead at 63
Steve Newport
By Robert Simonson
Bruce Adler, the scion of Yiddish theatre family who went on to have
much success on the Broadway stage, winning two Tony Award nominations,
died in the early hours of July 25, said his close friend, actor Mike
Burstyn. Mr. Adler had been battling liver cancer for several years. He
was 63.
A canny, rubber-faced and physically agile comic actor, Mr. Adler made
his Broadway debut playing the itinerant peddler Ali Hakim in the 1979
revival of Oklahoma! directed by William Hammerstein. The following
decade brought Broadway appearances in the short-lived original comedy
Oh, Brother! and the equally brief 1987 revival of the 1920s play
Broadway.
He found his greatest success in the early 1990s, netting Tony
nominations for his work in Those Were the Days (1990) and Crazy for You
(1992). The former, a revue, was a project close to his heart: a
collection of songs and sketches from the days when Second Avenue was a
bustling showbiz thoroughfare known at the Yiddish Rialto, and his
parents were two of its stars. The revue included songs by such one-time
Yiddish theatre luminaries as Sholom Secunda and Joseph Rumshinsky. Mr.
Adler himself provided "additional material."
"As for Mr. Adler, what is there that this anchor man can't do?" wrote
Richard F. Shepard in The New York Times. "He kazotskys, he soft-shoes,
he fandangos, or something in reasonable facsimile. He makes the oldest
jokes fresh and funny in his nonstop hoofer break-two-three-four
vaudeville routine, 'Hootsatsa.' He plays the bemused restaurant
customer who can't find anything to eat in a Sholom Aleichem skit.
Yiddish, English, whatever, he sets a funny pace."
Crazy for You was also a throwback, in a way. The old-fashioned musical
was composed of extant songs by George and Ira Gershwin, linked together
by a new book by playwright Ken Ludwig. The show was a smash. Mr. Adler
played a Ziegfeld-like impresario named Bela Zangler, and many critics
cited as a highlight "What Causes That?," an obscure Gershwin comic
number that the actor performed with precise comic timing with co-star
Harry Groener. New York Times critic Frank Rich called him a "fine,
acerbic clown." He spent four years with the production and later
re-created his performance at the Paper Mill Playhouse.
Mr. Adler was the son of actors Julius Adler and Henrietta Jacobsen. His
maternal grandparents, Joseph and Bessie Jacobson, were also actors, as
were two uncles. Like many Yiddish celebrities of the day, his parents
were treated like royalty along Second Avenue. As a child, he dined
often with his parents at the Café Royal, a mecca for Yiddish talent
of the day, and tromped up and down the stairs to the second-floor
clubhouse at the Hebrew Actors Union building on E. 7th Street, where
his father played cards and gossiped for many hours. "It was a home away
from home for us," recalled Mr. Burstyn. He began performing at the age
of three, and danced and sang on stage with Molly Picon when he was a
barely a teenager.
Mr. Adler also performed extensively in regional theatre. He played in
Cole Porter's Red, Hot and Blue at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 2001 and
St. Louis' summer theatre, the Muny, in Anything Goes, in 1999. Other
roles include Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof, Fagin in Oliver!, Nathan
Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Bill Snibson in Me and My Girl, Hysterium in
A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, Cogsworth in Beauty and
the Beast, and famed lyricist Sammy Cahn in Come Fly With Me. He toured
in his own one-man evening Song and Dance Man, which celebrated all of
his performing heroes.
Steve Newport
July 25, 2008
Dear Patrons,
The New Vista Theatre Company family deeply mourns the loss of our dear
friend and colleague, Bruce Adler.
Bruce died peacefully this morning, Friday, July 25, 2008 after losing
his battle with cancer.
Bruce will be fondly remembered and honored by us all for playing such
an important part in the birth of The New Vista Theatre Company with his
leading roles in The Sunshine Boys and I'm Not Rappaport.
We extend our most sincere condolences to his family, his wife, Amy,
their son Jake, Emily and A.J.
A memorial tribute to honor Bruce's life is being planned.
The New Vista Theatre Company - 11435 W. Palmetto Park Road, Suite E,
Boca Raton, FL, 33428
Christopher Jahn
only came out yesterday; we all knew Bruce was ill, but few of us
realized how ill.
Thanks for the New Vista link; I will add it to the ones on the
blog entry at The Scene. Christine Dolen also has a lovely piece
about Bruce on her blog at the Miami Herald.
--
}:-) Christopher Jahn
{:-( http://soflatheatre.blogspot.com/
Being down ain't being loser. (Iggy Pop)
Numbnuts
<xj...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> This was especially shocking as word that he was in Hospice care
> only came out yesterday; we all knew Bruce was ill, but few of us
> realized how ill.
>
> Thanks for the New Vista link; I will add it to the ones on the
> blog entry at The Scene. Christine Dolen also has a lovely piece
> about Bruce on her blog at the Miami Herald.
He was annouced to play Tevye in FIDDLER at St. Louis Muni with
rehearsals starting this week. He will be replaced by Lewis J. Stadlen.
Steve Newport
ANYTHING GOES. Also gone from that cast: Patrick Quinn who played
Evelyn.
Darrin
>
> By Robert Simonson
>
> Bruce Adler, the scion of Yiddish theatre family who went on to have
> much success on the Broadway stage, winning two Tony Award nominations,
> died in the early hours of July 25, said his close friend, actor Mike
> Burstyn. Mr. Adler had been battling liver cancer for several years. He
> was 63.
Steve, you beat the NY Yid of Tid to the punch?ehe It's always sad
when another sweet Jew goes to that great gig in the sky!eh -D, NYC
"Theatregoing was an essential component of immigrant life. During the
early 1900s, more than 1,000 performances a year were given before an
audience of about two million paying customers. Four major Yiddish
theatres - the Grand, the People's, the Thalia, and the Windsor -
opened around the Bowery, each individually seating well over 1,000.
The theatres were often full, despite tickets that cost twenty-five
cents to a dollar at a time when many workers made less than ten
dollars a week. Theatrical leads such as Boris Thomashefsky, Jacob
Adler, Molly Picon, and Bertha Kalich were stars of major magnitude
and adored by fans throughout the world. Jacob Adler "had a court, and
when you saw him in the streets he was preceded and followed by his
fans," recalled Jacob Epstein, a Jewish artist who grew up on the
Lower East Side" - "FROM YIDDISH THEATRE TO JEWISH-AMERICAN CULTURE,
excerpt from: JEWISH NEW YORK: Notable Neighborhoods and Memorable
Moments by Ira Wolfman.."I'm a New York City girl - it's a little too
quiet around here for me" - DALE (Flash Gordon, 1980).."A chocolate
Egg Cream was not to be missed..some U-Bet's Chocolate Syrup, Seltzer
water mixed with milk..Stir it up to a heady fro - tasted just like
silk..For fifty cents you got a shot - chocolate bubbles up your
nose..So the next time you're in Brooklyn - Please say hello for me at
Totonino's for pizza and ice cream at Al and Shirley's - You scream ,
I steam, we all Want Egg Cream" - LOU REED (b. Rabinowitz, umpteenth
sweet, Jewish NYer).."The discovery of petroleum was made by a Jew" -
ABRAHAM SCHREINER.."Comprising, as they do, a remarkably small
percentage of the population of our nation they {the Jews} have
distinguished themselves to a strikingly disproportionate
degree..Although Jews number only about three percent of our
population, they have been awarded 27 percent of the Nobel prizes won
by American scientists..Perhaps my own personal early background, a
thoroughly anti-Semitic culture, enables me to perceive more clearly
than most certain realities of Jewish-Gentile relations in the US.
Anti-Semites, whether of the truly vicious or almost casual type,
perceive Jews as inferior...On the contrary, they are superior" -
STEVE ALLEN, from his introduction to Tim Boxer's Jewish Celebrity
Hall of Fame (1987)
Steve Newport
From: darr...@aol.com (Darrin)
Well, Bruce had been working a lot down here in South Florida recently.
You've missed the Shel Silverstein thread.
BTW, did you know that Norman Jewison is NOT Jewish.
Darrin
> From: darrin...@aol.com (Darrin)
But of course! Thus giving way to the old Hollywood joke, which
Jewison himself often tells: "Norman Jewison isn't!" eheee Then again,
he need not be, since we have so many legendary sweets to choose from!
eh However, it does remind me of sweet Arthur Miller's novel/
screenplay, "Focus". A Gentile is mistaken for a Jew, and has to fight
against anti-Semitism. -D, NYC "When I was like 6 years old, I thought
the whole word was Jewish. And then I went to school. And all of a
sudden, I realized..gee...not everyone is Jewish. There are people who
are not Jewish. Then I realized there are alot of people who are not
Jewish. Then I realized (guess what) 99% of the world is not Jewish.
And that realization of that in that moment of my life... and then I
began to think back to when they integrated the schools. And all of a
sudden you had blacks. And I thought, wow, it had never occurred to
me before. That there were no blacks in my school. That they weren't
allowed. It didn't occur to me. Why weren't they allowed? And then I
began to think about when we began to cross Falls Road, which would
have been (to us), this Gentile area. Where there was like blonde
headed girls.
We might as well have gone to Norway. And all of a sudden we were
fascinated. And then you realized, wait a minute, you've been living
in a ghetto (in a way). And so all of those thoughts began to swim in
my head and that's where Liberty Heights came about" - BARRY LEVINSON,
filmmaker, sweet Jew, Oscar for Best Director - Rain Man.."The first
sex symbol in movie history was Jewish" - THEDA BARA (b.
Goodman).."When we moved to Phoenix, I was one of only five Jewish
kids in elementary and high school. There was a lot of anti-Semitism
against me and my sisters. In study hall, kids used to pitch pennies
at me, which would hit my desk and make a large clatter. It was called
'pitching pennies at the Jew,' and it was very hurtful" - STEVEN
SPIELBERG (2-time Oscar winner, most successful filmmaker since the
advent of film).."The first theatre to be solely used for the showing
of motion pictures was built by a Jew" - ADOLPH ZUCKER (Parmount)
Harlett O'Dowd
"The first theatre to be solely used for the showing
> of motion pictures was built by a Jew" - ADOLPH ZUCKER (Parmount)
The last is untrue. The first structure built soley for the use of
showing motion pictures was built by C. Francis Jenkins for the
October 1895 Cotton States Exposition in Piedmont Park, Atlanta. It
pre-dated the celebrated Lumiere Brothers December 1895 exposition in
Paris.
However, Jenkins' endeavor was a colossal failure and the structure
(part of a row of quickly built exhibition halls/tents) bruned to the
ground only a few weeks later.
Darrin
wrote:
> On Aug 6, 1:38 am, Darrin <darrin...@aol.com> wrote:
> "The first theatre to be solely used for the showing
>
>
> The last is untrue. The first structure built soley for the use of
> showing motion pictures was built by C. Francis Jenkins for the
> October 1895 Cotton States Exposition in Piedmont Park, Atlanta. It
> pre-dated the celebrated Lumiere Brothers December 1895 exposition in
> Paris.
>
> However, Jenkins' endeavor was a colossal failure and the structure
> (part of a row of quickly built exhibition halls/tents) bruned to the
> ground only a few weeks later.
No kibbitzing!?eheh IOW, technicalities do not count! eh Zucker's baby
(Paramount Studios) is official!eh -D, NYC "The star of the first
"talkie" was Jewish" - AL JOLSON (b. Yoelson).."You can't have a Jew
play a Jew. It won't work" - SAMUEL L. GOLDWYN, b. Gelbfisz, later
changed to Goldfisch, commenting on his casting of Frank Sinatra in
the movie version of Guys & Dolls after it had been played on Broadway
by Sam Levene, from Great Jewish Quotations: By Jews & About Jews - By
Alfred J. Kolatch.."Louis B. Mayer may have changed his first name
from the Jewish-sounding Lazar, but he couldn't change his very Jewish
characteristics. It was part of the folklore at MGM that the studio
commisary had to serve chicken soup with real pieces of chicken in it
for lunch every day, at 35 cents a bowl, in honor of Mayer's long
deceased mother" - YENTA'S LITTLE SECRETS: Welcome To
Hollywood,excerpt from THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO JEWISH HISTORY
AND CULTURE by RABBI BENJAMIN BLECH.."The first female president of a
major Hollywood studio was Jewish" - SHERRY LANSING (Paramount)