The Broadway Maven's Weekly Blast: Is there really no Hebrew word for "Lady?"
David Benkof interprets Broadway
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Shalom!
This week, the Broadway Maven will be looking at the legacy of My Fair Lady and Guys and Dolls:
• The Monday January 11 class will watch and discuss at least 2-3 numbers from each show;
• I’ve uploaded two new videos about My Fair Lady to my YouTube channel; and
• This issue of Show Tune Tribune examines the challenges of translating shows such as Guys and Dolls and Les Misérables into Hebrew.
Below you’ll also hear me rant about narrow-minded theatergoers; and rave about (and recommend, and link to) a remarkable high school production of A Chorus Line.
Four years ago, on the Seth Meyers late-night program, Tony winner Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) created a YouTube sensation singing a few lines from the version of “Luck Be a Lady” he learned for Camp Ramah’s all-Hebrew production of Guys and Dolls. However, he explained to the host that Hebrew has no word for lady. Instead, the words he sang were “Hey, lady t’ni li mazal,” meaning “hey give me luck, Lady.”
However, Ramah has published several Hebrew versions of Guys and Dolls, most avoiding the word Lady altogether. Examples: “Mazal Tofia Elai” - Luck show up for me; and “Mazal Yesh Li Tzorech B’cha” - Luck I need you. But the word Mazal is masculine, so the verbs are awkwardly conjugated for a song about a Lady.
Ramah does use a Hebrew word - g’veret - in its translation of the word “Lady” when it puts on the OTHER show we’re looking at this week - My Fair Lady. That word, though, comes with a set of connotations perhaps closer to “Ma’am” than “Lady.”
Translating songs while retaining the nuances is a, well, unsung art form. Some of the best work in this field was done by Herbert Kertzmer, a Jewish Brit who translated the musical Les Misérables into English. The widely used translations from Kertzmer’s English into Hebrew can be jaw-dropping:
For example, when Mme. Thenardier sings “everybody raise a glass…. raise it up the master’s ass!” the translation for glass/ass is “kankan” (pitcher/jug) and “yashvan” (tush).
Even more impressive is the opening three notes of “Bring Him Home”:
The English song starts with Jean Valjean word painting the phrase “God On High” with one low note and two high notes. It’s a prayer, so he starts by addressing God. But the Hebrew lyric starts “Elohai,” which means “My God” and literally starts several important Hebrew prayers. And the third syllable of both is pronounced “high”!
Such linguistic nimbleness vastly enhances translated musicals. Ramah has published its archive, much of it in old mimeographed versions, but if you’re even a little bilingual in Hebrew, it’s worth checking out.
More than 2,500 free tickets have been distributed for Monday’s class, which is about My Fair Lady and Guys and Dolls, and no more are available. For those already signed up, two sessions are set for January 11, at Noon and 8 pm ET.
Unfortunately, at this stage only Semester Passholders ($49 through January 12) can join filled-up classes.
Optional homework for this week’s class (and everyone can do it!) is to watch the two videos below complaining about My Fair Lady, and answer these questions at the YouTube page (feel free to respond to other people’s comments, too):
Pick a villain (Gaston, the Wicked Witch, Hannibal Lecter, Nurse Ratched) and compare them to Henry Higgins. Who’s more vile and why?
What, if anything, is the theme of My Fair Lady?
Why do people rule out entire categories of musical, including some they’ve never experienced?
I actually know one person who won’t see Hamilton because, well, he doesn’t like rap music. Similarly, while there are certainly some awful jukebox musicals out there, Jersey Boys is well-constructed and entertaining; and even Mamma Mia! has its charms.
And people who hate revues can, with an open mind, find SOMETHING to appreciate in one of the three celebrations of the music of the Dean of Musical Theater: Side by Side by Sondheim (1977); Putting it Together (1992); and Sondheim on Sondheim (2010). Broadway is a multibranched art form that demands an open mind from those who want to fully encounter it.
“Keep trying” is not too much to ask of them.
Most of my students know about my enthusiasm for (the best) high school musicals, including how I’m always raving about this version of West Side Story. I recently found something about as good, from Hopewell Valley Central High School in New Jersey. So let me start raving about it, too!
The young people in the show are mature well beyond their years. The actor performing Paul’s monologue handles what might be a tough subject for a modern teenager to relate to - 1970s homophobia - with aplomb. And below, check out the acting, singing, and dancing skills the performer playing Mike displays in just two and a half minutes.
But definitely watch the whole show (First Act, Second Act).
“History of Music Theatre and Broadway” is the only truly popular video in the relatively obscure “Wasco Productions” music history YouTube series. It’s quite good, especially for beginners and young people. In just five minutes, it contextualizes American musical theater within the history of the art form, and provides video and audio clips from dozens of shows, all in celebration of the Broadway we know today.
Check out:
• One-minute video introduction to the course (please share widely!)
• “Broadway Maven” playlist at YouTube
• David Benkof’s YouTube channel
Calendar:
Thursday, January 7 Jewish Women Photographers (Noon ET) and Poets (1 pm ET)
Monday, January 11 Guys and Dolls; My Fair Lady (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Wednesday, January 13 Peter, Paul, & Mary 101 (8 pm ET) and Simon & Garfunkel 101 (9 pm ET)
Thursday, January 14 “If You Could See Cabaret Through My Eyes” (8 pm ET)
Monday, January 18 The Music Man, Gypsy (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Wednesday, January 20 Bob Dylan 101 (8 pm ET) and Billy Joel 101 (9 pm ET)
Monday, January 25 Hair, Grease (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Tuesday, January 26 Contemporary Jewish Broadway (Noon ET, ALL-ACCESS Passholders ONLY)
Wednesday, January 27 Carole King 101 (8 pm ET) and Debbie Friedman 101 (9 pm ET)
-David Benkof, The Broadway Maven
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