JEWISH WOMEN IN THEATRE PRE, DURING and POST WORLD WAR II
** (out of five)
Artists’ Village. With Anne Cattaneo.
The Shaw’s headliner musical show for 2026 is “Funny Girl” starring Canadian Sara Farb as the renowned American comedian, Fanny Brice.
This is the role on stage and screen that famously shot Barbra Streisand into the show business stratosphere. Brice, Streisand and Farb are Jewish. The idea to illuminate the astonishing range and importance of Jewish women to theatre history led to inviting a guest to speak on “Jewish Women in Theatre Pre, During and Post-World War II.”
This presentation, given by Anne Cattaneo, was to examine “the impact Jewish women in theatre made to the art form, the growth of American and Canadian theatre and the changes and challenges they faced.”
Of this, we did not hear much.
We did learn about dramaturgy as Anne Cattaneo was a dramaturg for many years at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York working with the renowned executive theatre producer, Bernard Gersten.
Available to attendees was a six-page handout with information and advice from Cattaneo’s book, “The Art of Dramaturgy,” published in 2021. We learned that dramaturgy is the job of a theatre person who is compassionate, collaborative, flexible and understands the structure of plays, text, language and the creative process.
The dramaturg knows theatre history and literature, researches previous plays, records each new play, supports new development and actors and seeks to connect to an audience in great and mysterious ways. This was enlightening.
But what about the topic? Who were these famous and groundbreaking Jewish women? What did they have to overcome to succeed? What drove them forward? Ambition, drive, resilience for certain.
Many found it necessary to change their names due to antisemitism. Those with one Jewish parent chose to identify with one or the other or chose a new name.
Some began in the Yiddish Art Theatre founded by Sarah and Jacob Adler in New York in 1918 to present serious Yiddish drama. The Broadway and Hollywood actress Stella Adler (1901-1992) became one of the most influential women in theatre and contemporary acting. She co-founded Group Theater in 1931 and founded the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in 1949.
Her students included Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty and Salma Hayek. She believed the student’s main responsibility was emotional availability, imagination and to “act with your soul.”
Women acting in 19th century America included the actress and author Rose Eytinge (1835-1911). She specialized in fiery, passionate performances that captivated Washington audiences, including Abraham Lincoln. She did not disclose being Jewish.
Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868), actress, poet and sculptor, was an American pioneer of vaudeville, burlesque and publicity who converted to Judaism. The highest paid actress of her time, her near-nudity and equestrian feats in Lord Byron’s “Mazeppa” astonished her audiences in New York, London and Paris.
Her writing ambition led to meetings with Walt Whitman, George Sand, Charles Dickens and a dalliance with Alexandre Dumas. Married four times, she wrote that women needed to be trained for “other missions than wife and mother.”
Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) famed French actress, director, sculptor, was born in Paris to a Jewish courtesan mother and a Catholic father. Although she acknowledged her Jewish heritage, she identified as Roman Catholic or atheist.
Her career spanned a lifetime of starring roles with the Odéon and Comédie-Française in Paris and touring extensively with her own company to the United States, Canada, South America and Europe.
She entertained the French troops in 1916 on the Verdun and Argonne fronts despite her own leg amputation due to an injury performing “Tosca.” She was awarded the Légion d’honneur for her role as a director, not actress, due to her scandalous behaviour.
Molly Picon (1898-1992) actress of stage, screen, radio and television, began in Yiddish theatre and rose to star as Yente the Matchmaker in “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1971. She opened the Molly Picon Theatre and entered the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.
Sophie Tucker (1886-1966) began in vaudeville but achieved fame on Broadway, in film and performances singing her hits “Some of These Days” and “My Yiddishe Momme” to audiences including King George V and Queen Mary at the Palladium in London in 1926. She was elected president of the American Federation of Actors trade union in 1938.
Stage actresses who have entertained us for years include Bea Arthur in “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Mame” and “Golden Girls.” Lauren Bacall dazzled Hollywood, Broadway and Humphrey Bogart. Joan Rivers kept audiences laughing with her raunchy jokes. Goldie Hawn danced up a storm in the Broadway hits “Kiss Me Kate” and “Guys and Dolls.” Tony award winner Judy Holliday was a not so dumb blond in “Born Yesterday.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman have performed Anton Chekhov on Broadway. Scarlett Johansson received the Tony Award for her performance in “A View from the Bridge.” Isabelle Huppert is currently France’s leading actress. Gila Almagor and Hanna Rovina are revered in Israel. England’s Claire Bloom and Zoë Wanamaker, have both received Commander of the Order of the British Empire recognition for their theatre achievements.
Helen Menken, a Broadway and Hollywood actress, producer and later president of the American Theatre Wing, helped create the Stage Door Canteens which provided free entertainment, dancing and food to servicemen during the Second World War.
Theresa Helburn was a director and president of the Theatre Guild in New York which produced a total of 128 non-commercial American and foreign plays including 18 from George Bernard Shaw. Zelda Fichandler rejected the commercialism of New York theatre and co-founded two regional theatres in Houston and the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.
Writers such as Lillian Hellman, Vicki Baum and Wendy Wasserstein, achieved tremendous success with their award-winning plays on Broadway. Julie Taymor, director and writer of theatre, opera and film has received international acclaim for her outstanding adaptation of “The Lion King.”
Rachel Chavkin is currently the artistic director and producer of international touring plays at the TEAM, an experimental theatre ensemble based in Brooklyn. She is currently the most active and acclaimed director on Broadway with multiple Obie and Tony wins and nominations.
The list goes on with the stunning lighting designs of Jean Rosenthal for “West Side Story,” “Hello Dolly” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” Missing are untold numbers of costume designers, agents, scholars and critics who daily contribute to theatre history.
Carole King, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, has appeared in productions on and off Broadway. Bette Midler, actress, singer, songwriter and author has been awarded Grammys, Emmys, Tonys and Kennedy Center Honours. Special applause is due to Kitty Carlisle Hart, a stage and film actress, television personality, opera singer and as chairperson of the New York State Council on the Arts from 1976 to 1996, a tireless crusader for financial support of the arts.
Such recognition of so many is long overdue.
Penny-Lynn Cookson is an arts and culture historian, writer and lecturer living in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
