Also this issue:

Strikes, Fights, Big City
A turbulent New York theater season produced some notable work.
-Toby Zinman

Lullaby of Broadway
This season’s musical theater scene has been a bit sleepy.
-David Anthony Fox

Alone Again, Naturally
-Susan Hagen

Artsbeat
-Debra Auspitz

The Plotz Retrospective
-A.D. Amorosi

Bell Esteem
-Kristina Weise

Don DeLillo
-Andrew Ervin

Temple University Opera Theater
-Peter Burwasser

April 24-30, 2003

artpicks

Green Violin

by Steve Cohen

There are several reasons to look forward to the world premiere of Green Violin at the Prince this weekend, and one is the chance to see and hear Raúl Esparza co-star in the play. Wilmington-born Esparza, 32, made a mark in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show in 2001 and followed up with a sensational performance as the songwriter in the world premiere of the late Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical tick, tick … Boom! After that, Esparza was tapped to take over the role of the emcee in Cabaret on Broadway opposite Hal Robinson as Herr Schultz. Before all of that, Esparza had stints with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Goodman Theatre, both of Chicago.

Now Robinson will play the painter Marc Chagall and Esparza the actor Solomon Mikhoels in Green Violin, chronicling the Moscow State Yiddish Theater during the early years of Russia’s Communist regime. Mikhoels was the company’s star while Chagall created costumes, sets and painted murals for the theater. Chagall resented Soviet meddling with his artistic freedom and fled to the West, while Mikhoels remained. Stalin used Mikhoels as head of his Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, then had him killed because he "was corrupted by the West."

"This is very personal for me," says Esparza. "My family is Cuban and they fled Castro’s regime. Green Violin shows how one man left a repressive country and another stayed and tried to change it from within. It also shows how art can transform people, and help people cope with grief."

Green Violin is a serious play with incidental music, rather than an old-fashioned musical. That appeals to Esparza. "I like nothing better than creating a new piece, and I think of myself as an actor, rather than a singer." Many critics, however, rave about the beauty of his voice.

Chagall created costumes for the Yiddish Theater by painting the clothes and the actors’ bodies. A similar method will be used for Green Violin’s costumes. Likewise, the music, by Frank London, is a reflection of Chagall, with klezmer at its core but with modernist influences as well. The show’s co-authors are Elise Thoron (Charlotte: Life or Theater?) and Rebecca Bayla Taichman (director of the Obie Award-winning Menopausal Gentleman).

--Steve Cohen

Green Violin, April 26-May 18, $25-$48, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., 215-569-9700.