MARK AUERBACH
Echoes from the Borscht Belt
The traveling exhibit “Echoes from the Borscht Belt: Contemporary Photographs by Marisa Scheinfeld” is in residence through October at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. The exhibit documents the dramatic decline of the resorts of New York’s Catskill Mountains region, which were in their prime until the 1980s. The exhibit was developed and curated by Yeshiva University Museum.
Photographer Marisa Scheinfeld. (Photo by Walter Briski Jr.)
For much of the 20th century the Catskills were a thriving vacation destination, home to hundreds of hotels and motels, from famed high-end resorts such as Grossinger’s and the Concord to modest bungalow colonies. It came to be known as the Borscht Belt because of its popularity with Jews from the New York region, who for years were not welcome at many other vacation spots. In its heyday, the area was known especially for its nightlife, with top comedians and other performers appearing regularly there.
Ferns and mosses have taken over the once glamourous Grossinger’s indoor pool in the Catskills. (Photo by Marisa Scheinfeld)
Scheinfeld grew up in the Catskills in the 1980s and ’90s, not far from the legendary resorts. By then, however, economic and other factors had sent the region into rapid decline, leading many of the hotels and clubs to close. (Scheinfeld will give a gallery talk at the Yiddish Book Center on August 2 at 2 p.m.)
“Echoes from the Borscht Belt” includes resort and hotel memorabilia that Scheinfeld has collected over the years as well as selected images from her “re-photographic” series, in which she used promotional shots from the region’s glory days as inspiration for new photos showing the same settings as they look now.
Rufus Wainwright
The Borscht Belt Film Festival runs in conjunction with the exhibit. The documentary “Welcome to Kutsher’s: The Last Catskills Resort” will be screened on May 10 on a double feature with “Dirty Dancing”, the Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze hit film set in The Borscht Belt. On May 17, the Film Festival screens “When Comedy Went to School”, a 2013 documentary about the Borscht Belt’s role as the birthplace of modern stand-up comedy, featuring interviews with top comics who once performed on its stages including Robert Klein, Jerry Stiller, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, and Dick Gregory. The Festival concludes on June 7, with “A Walk on the Moon”, starring Diane Lane as an unhappy wife vacationing in the Catskills with her family and Viggo Mortensen as the alluring stranger who invites her to join him at a festival taking place nearby: the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
For information: www.yiddishbookcenter.org.
Varla Jean Merman
Tony Awards Season
The nominees for the 2015 Tony Awards will be announced on April 28, and a lot of western New England theatregoers will be watching to see if productions that originated in the area and artists from the area have made the nominee list. Eligible for nominations are: “The Visit” (Chita Rivera), “The Elephant Man”(Bradley Cooper), and “Living on Love” (Renee Fleming) which all originated at Williamstown Theatre Festival; “On The Town”, which originated at Barrington Stage, set designer Todd Rosenthal of Longmeadow (“Fish in the Dark”), and former StageWest company member John Cariani (“Something Rotten”) For a list of nominees: http://www.tonyawards.com
Keep in Mind…
***The Theory of Relativity, an unconventional new musical about connections, opens the Goodspeed season at the Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, CT (May 7-31). Drama Desk nominees Neil Bartram and Brian Hill, (“The Story of My Life”), through songs, scenes, and monologues, introduce a group of characters trying to make a connection in today’s world. The musical premiere will be staged by Hill. For tickets: 860-873-8668 or www.goodspeed.org.
***Rufus Wainwright performs at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on May 9. Son of folk music luminaries Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and the brother of Martha Wainwright, he has carved out his own singular sound in the worlds of rock, opera, theater, dance, and film. Rufus set Shakespearean sonners to music for Robert Wilson; he performed the entire “Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall” recording at Carnegie Hall, and composed the opera, “Prima Donna”. For tickets: 413-528-0100 or www.mahaiwe.org..
***Varla Jean Merman, the drag chanteuse and supposed love child of Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine, stars in “A Louisiana Skankee in Connecticut Court”, a benefit for the Mark Twain House and Museum on May 8-9. Varla, the alter-ego of Jeffrey Roberson, starred in the film “Girls Will Be Girls”, the off-Broadway musical “Lucky Guy”, and with Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans in “Mildred Fierce”. Roberson starred on Broadway in “Chicago”. This is an adults only show. For tickets: 860-280-3130 or www.marktwainhouse.org.
***Encore! An Evening to Celebrate High School Musicals showcases 100 students from ten Western Massachusetts high schools, performing excerpts from their school musicals, among them “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Guys and Dolls”, “Cabaret”, “The Music Man” and more. Travis G. Daly from Berkshire Theatre Group directs, May 2 at The Clonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA. For tickets: 413-997-4444 or www.berkshiretheatregroup.org
***The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s comedy classic , is onstage at West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park through May 3. Jerry Winters stages Wilde’s mannered laugh riot of mystique, folly, and playful deception. For tickets: 860-523-5900 x 10 or www.playhouseonpark.org
***The Seth Show calls it a wrap on May 5 with the final show of the season at Eastworks in Easthampton. Humorist Seth Lepore has been taking on all kinds of topics here in the Knowledge Corridor. The May 5th show is a Commencement Special. Audience members “graduate” from his six month series. For details: www.sethums.com.
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
