INDECENT: ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST
RECORDING
Original Score by Lisa Gutkin and
Aaron Halva
Yellow Sound Label
(This review was published in the
Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.)
Paula Vogel’s play, “Indecent,” which had a Tony
Award-winning run on Broadway in 2017, tells the story of Yiddish playwright Sholem Asch’s controversial –
especially for the times – play, “The God of Vengeance,” which was produced
successfully in both Europe and New York, where it played for several years on
the Lower East Side. In 1923, an English-language version opened and closed in
one night in New York when the entire cast was arrested on obscenity charges.
Central to the
Broadway production of “Indecent” is the musical score created by violinist Lisa Gutkin, well known in klezmer
music circles as a member of the Klezmatics,
and accordionist-pianist Aaron Halva.
The pair were joined onstage by clarinetist Matt Darriau, also of the Klezmatics. While a few of the pieces in
the score, including “Ale Brider” and “Bei Mir Bistu Shein,” are familiar, most
of the numbers were composed by Gutkin and Halva specifically for the show.
You don’t really
have to know the plot of the play to appreciate this music. Whether
instrumentals featuring the band or songs with vocals by the production’s
actors, the music will appeal to anyone who loves traditional klezmer or
Yiddish theatre music.
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