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In the Performing Arts
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From The Jewish Week
A National Jewish Theater, Sans Stage
January 5, 2010
If the fledgling National Jewish Theater were telling its own story on stage, it might bear a striking resemblance to the one about that idealistic Spaniard tilting at windmills.
Start a theater company specializing in Jewish fare at the height of the Great Recession — and with the fresh memory of the Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” shuttering after only a week of performances?
Only Don Q., or perhaps the Irish dreamer Finian McLonergan (the star of the soon-to-close Broadway revival of “Finian’s Rainbow”), could conceive of such a thing.
But just off a sold-out limited run at Baruch College of Theodore Bikel’s homage to Sholom Aleichem, Arnold Mittelman, the producer-director who launched the NJT quietly in 2008, is thinking big. Broadway big.
From BroadwayWorld.com
THE
ROTHSCHILDS
Aiming for First Broadway Revival by Miami's Arnold Mittelman
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Based on The Rothschilds by Frederic Morton, it tells of the rise of the Rothschild family from humble beginnings in Germany, to their founding of their financial empire and growing political influence under the guidance of patriarch Mayer Rothschild, to their assistance in funding Napoleon's defeat, and how they secure a declaration of rights for European Jews in the midst of an oppressive era. The Rothschilds was the last collaboration between Bock and Harnick. The show won a Tony Award for its original star Hal Linden.
An
Open Letter From Theodore Bikel
Thursday, December 9, 2007
Dear Friend and Theater Lover,
I am proud to lend my name and endorsement in support of a wonderful new initiative, the National Jewish Theater and the American Theater
Festival.
The newly founded not-for-profit National Jewish Theater (NJT) will celebrate and preserve the genius and cultural significance of important Jewish theatrical artists and productions highlighting Jewish American composers, lyricists and playwrights of musical theater, drama and comedy.
The
Sue and Leonard Miller
Center for Contemporary Jewish Studies
Thursday, December 18, 2006
Dear Arnold,
The Sue ad Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Jewish Studies is committed to supporting innovative efforts that further our mission and make a significant contribution to the academic and non-acedemic communities....
... We look forward to our potential collaboration and heartily endorse the emergence of a National Jewish Theater under your leadership ....
SocialMiami.com
Posted March, 2008
LAUNCH OF NATIONAL JEWISH THEATER
Produced by Arnold Mittelman at the Parker Playhouse
The
launch of the National Jewish Theater and American Theater Festival was a
resounding success. Leading with the musical The Soul of Gershwin, Arnold
Mittelman's theatrical rebirth drew some of South Florida's most influential
people. The legendary performer of stage and screen, Jack Klugman, came to
town to help Arnold introduce these latest ventures. On hand at the Saturday
night performance were Harvey and Roberta Chaplin. Harvey was honored for his
longtime commitment to philanthropy, and is one of the founding donors to the
National Jewish Theater and American Theater Festival.
Photo by John Anderson
(l-r)Arnold Mittelman, Susann Green, Peggy Crosby, Jack Klugman, Roberta & Harvey
Chaplin
For more photos, Click
Here 
'"Hard Love" packs a powerful emotional punch
David Cooper, New York Jewish Examiner
If this review seems spare it’s because I hope you’ll see Motti Lerner’s play Hard Love (either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday evening) and want to keep spoilers to a minimum. Hanna and Zvi divorced 20 years ago when Zvi became an atheist and left their Ultra-Orthodox community. When the children they each had in their second marriages start dating they meet again which leads them to discuss their marriage and its ending.
The themes Hard Love examines include both the religious-secular divide in Israeli society and the compromises that are necessary in any marriage. The latter theme in particular gives the play its emotional depth and power; Zvi is too emotionally wounded to meet Hanna half-way. Zvi is haunted by God; his professed atheism seems like an attempt to flee a God he blames but can never elude. I am personally acquainted with several couples who agree to disagree on matters of religion, but none of them are Ultra-Orthodox, and all of them are psychologically whole and emotionally secure enough to accommodate a partner’s differences.
Hanna and Zvi are the only characters that actually appear on stage, and Mira Hirsch and David Marshall Silverman give very strong performances. The play’s two acts (between which there is a ten minute intermission) mirror each other in reverse.