Erin Palm

It’s a Wonderful Life in music

Erin Palm and Nick Fontaine reprise their roles as Mary and George Bailey in Patrick Street Productions’ musical It’s a Wonderful Life. (photo by David Cooper)

So ingrained in popular culture is Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life that many Jews probably make it an annual tradition to watch the 1946 film. This year, there is also the chance to see a musical adaptation of the classic, in which the angel Clarence is assigned the job of trying to save Bailey Building and Loan owner George Bailey from committing suicide on Christmas Eve, after there is a run on the bank and George faces the possibility not only of financial ruin but of believing his life has been a waste.

Patrick Street Productions presents the musical version by Peter Jorgensen, with arrangements and orchestrations by Nico Rhodes, at the Anvil Centre Theatre in New Westminster from Dec. 19 to Jan. 5. The show is the only ticketed event of Winter Celebrations, free daily performances by professional artists, singers and musicians at the Anvil Centre until Jan. 5.

It’s a Wonderful Life features a few Jewish community members: Erin Palm as George’s wife, Mary; Andrew Cohen as Ernie, who Cohen describes as “everyone’s favourite Bedford Falls cabbie”; and Stephen Aberle playing, in his words, “the ruthless, cold-hearted capitalist Mr. Potter, as well as the Sheriff, and hero George Bailey’s father, Peter.”

“Mr. Potter is the antagonist of the piece,” explained Aberle. “He owns practically everything in the small town of Bedford Falls, other than the little Bailey Building and Loan Society that George Bailey’s father founded and that George continues. Potter hates the Building and Loan and does everything he can to crush it because it helps working people to save and buy their own homes instead of having to rent from him and live in the slums he owns.”

While Cohen and Aberle are new to the show, Palm played Mary in the 2018 Patrick Street production at the Gateway Theatre. As an aside, she said, “I also auditioned for the original production in Chemainus so many moons ago. I am so happy it all worked out the way it did. I truly believe it was the right fit for me at this time in my life. I have so much more personal growth and experience to bring to the role of Mary.”

Never wanting her acting to be a copy of someone else’s work, Palm said she has not seen the movie in its entirety. “I have seen some clips,” she said, “but not enough to develop a multifaceted character. Peter has written a great script and all I need to bring Mary to life is in the text. The musical aspect is completely different from the movie, and I think a beautiful addition.”

About her character, Palm said, “I appreciate Mary’s faith in community and her love for her family. She’s really strong and an anchor for George. When she wants something in her life, she goes after it. She’s the matriarch and heroine of the story. She comes through for her family and for her community when times are at their worst.

“I also appreciate her love of the simple life. In complex times like ours, and when I find my ambition too great, it’s people like Mary that remind me I can be happy and grateful for what I have, what I have worked so hard to create.”

One of Palm’s favourite scenes is “the moment right before we meet Clarence,” she said. “George is on the bridge and he’s deciding the fate of his own life, the same bridge where so many of his life’s highlights happen. It often makes me weep backstage. It’s difficult to think of people who carry the weight of the world with them, feeling isolated and alone, especially around the holidays, but the reality is the troubles of the world do not stop around those times and are in fact amplified for people who are struggling with depression and financial hardship. It’s a beautiful reminder how important it is to reach out to those around you, be a light in their lives. It only takes one person, one gesture to change the outcome of the lives of many.”

For her part, Palm is grateful to be working with the cast and especially Aberle, who happens to be her father-in-law. “Working on a show that has to do with family makes me long for family during the holidays and it is a gift to work with him,” she said.

Of the Christmas aspect of the show, Palm said the story is based in community and, “while we sing some Christmas carols, the heart of the piece is a very human story of how communities can overcome hardship by coming together around the holidays to help those who need it most, to support each other and to celebrate life. It touches on how faith can be a guiding light, but, ultimately, it’s in our own hands. Our daily work, prayer and decisions can change our own lives and people around us.”

While acknowledging that the story “seems to be somewhat synonymous with this season,” Cohen said it’s “the story of a stalwart man who continually puts the needs of his community members above his own. He learns that the value of life is not determined by monetary gain or ambition but rather the positive impact you have made on the lives of others. Even though we like to watch this story around Christmas time, it is not a story about any one holiday, but rather a family man who learns how to be a mensch.”

Aberle echoed his co-stars’ comments, adding more context and noting some Jewish connections.

“It’s a Wonderful Life is about the importance of family, fairness, justice, courage in resistance to oppression and people sticking together in hard times,” he said. “It celebrates the human spirit and the importance of individual action and responsibility. While it’s true that the climactic scenes of the story are set at Christmas time and that our production (like perennial TV broadcasts of the film) is coming out at that time of year, I’d say (with director Frank Capra himself) that it’s not a Christmas story. To quote Capra: ‘I didn’t even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea.’ In a 1946 interview, Capra described the film’s theme as ‘the individual’s belief in himself.’

“It happens that several of the writers who were involved with it were Jews, or of Jewish descent,” Aberle added. “The original short story, The Greatest Gift, was by Philip Van Doren Stern, whose father was of Bavarian Jewish extraction, and the writers who contributed to the film screenplay included Clifford Odets and Jo Swerling, both Jewish, and Dorothy Parker, whose father was a Jew.

“A heck of a lot of the music in this adaptation – like a heck of a lot of American musicals in general – is by Jewish composers and librettists, including George and Ira Gershwin, Alan Jay Lerner, Kurt Weill.”

For tickets to It’s a Wonderful Life, call 604-684-2787 or visit patrickstreetproductions.com. The show is recommended for ages 9+.

Welcome to Cabaret!

Dylan Floyde as Cliff Bradshaw and Erin Palm as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, presented by Studio 58. (photo by David Cooper)

“I honestly couldn’t think of a more important show to do right now, with such a divided political climate. The past is as important as ever, we must not let it fade. We need stories like these,” Erin Palm told the Jewish Independent about Cabaret, which opened at Studio 58 (Langara College) last week and runs until Feb. 24.

The musical is set in Berlin in 1929, as the Nazis begin their ascent to power in Germany. Palm plays the role of Kit Kat Klub headliner Sally Bowles, the British singer with whom American writer Cliff Bradshaw falls in love.

“Sally is such a complex character. I’d say the most important thing as an actor is honouring her, and acknowledging that she and the other characters in Cabaret are based on the real experiences of Christopher Isherwood, back in Weimar Berlin,” said Palm. “The biggest challenge for me is to know her apathy. It’s painful and tragic.

“I have, hopefully, given her autonomy throughout her journey. I am not a fan of judging the characters I play so, to combat that, I focus on how she is brave, independent and whimsical. She uses humour and imagination as a tool to get through her own challenges and I think that’s where the fun comes in. Really, she’s searching for freedom, and I love playing with that as an actor.”

Palm is in her third and final year at Studio 58. “I became a student the summer after I finished playing Fruma Sarah in Fiddler on the Roof with RCMT [Royal City Musical Theatre] and traveling to Toronto to do the National Voice Intensive. It was a big decision to go back to school, but I know the legacy of Studio 58 is that it turns out fine actors. I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to grow and gain new tools.”

Fellow Jewish community member Josh Epstein makes his directing debut with this production. A multiple-award-winning actor and filmmaker, he was a student at Studio 58, where he played the role of Joey in Pal Joey. “I also met my creative partner, Kyle Rideout, while there and we named our company Motion 58 in honour of Studio 58,” said Epstein. (He and Rideout recently sold a feature film pitch to Paramount with the Transformers producers, di Bonaventura Pictures, said Epstein, “and we have a variety of film and TV projects at various stages of development.”)

About returning to Studio 58 for Cabaret, Epstein said, “I’ve been talking to Kathryn Shaw [Studio 58 artistic director] for a couple of years about returning to direct something, as I now felt ready, and Cabaret was my first and only choice.”

Epstein said he has a few favourite scenes, ones “that bring tears to my eyes, but none more than a late scene between Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider, the older couple that has sweetly fallen in love. None of the characters truly knows what’s coming. Herr Schultz still sees himself as a German and firmly believes he won’t lose anything. It’s heartbreaking.”

Another returning Jewish community member for this production is lighting designer Itai Erdal.

“Studio 58 is one of my favourite places to work,” he told the Independent. “I keep coming back because I love the staff and I love the energy of the young students and because I’ve done some of my best work there. I find it to be a great working environment, which often allows for some real magic to happen.”

Erdal is enjoying lighting Cabaret, which has much darkness in it story-wise, as well as being set in a nightclub.

“Lighting musicals is always tricky but it’s really wonderful to light a musical like Cabaret, just because of that darkness you refer to,” he said. “So many musicals are very lighthearted and it is so refreshing to do a musical about something that matters so much. It’s also some of the best music ever written for theatre, so it’s a joy to light these iconic songs and support these brilliant young actors as they tackle those songs.”

Given that Cabaret is such a well-known musical, Epstein said, “I’m definitely encouraging the team to tell the story that’s written, first and foremost, but any staging or performance that’s been done before, I’m not that interested in repeating. We’re creating something that is unique to Studio 58, their intimate space, and it will be aggressive, fun and stimulating.

“I’m very excited for the fresh performances of Sally and the Emcee in our production,” he added. “I think we’ve found a Sally (Erin Palm) that doesn’t feel sorry for herself, that has strength and power and makes active decisions rather than accepting her lot in life. Our Emcee is female and, after watching how Paige Fraser has done it so far, I would never want it any other way. For one, she dances and sings better than most of the men who have played the role before onstage.

“We’ve also played with the musical numbers,” he said. “‘Mein Herr’ is gonna rip the roof off the theatre and I think we’ve reinvented the pineapple song [‘It Couldn’t Please Me More’].”

Epstein recommends that audience members arrive early. “There’s a burlesque show you won’t want to miss,” he said.

The production’s promotional material, which advises that the show is suitable for ages 16+, comes with the warning, “Possible nudity, probable vulgarity and other behaviour your momma won’t approve of!”

For tickets, visit langara.ca/studio-58/current-season.

Royal City welcomes Tevye

Jewish community members in Royal City Musical Theatre’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, left to right: Erin Palm, Warren Kimmel and Zach Wolfman, with Michael Wilkinson in front. The show runs April 7-23 at Massey Theatre. (photo by Tim Matheson)

This year’s Royal City Musical Theatre production is Fiddler on the Roof. Playing the legendary lead character of Tevye the Milkman is Jewish community member Warren Kimmel.

Addressing the community, Kimmel acknowledged that Fiddler is “one of those pieces of art that have just become part of the culture almost by osmosis.” But, he added, “Fiddler on the Roof is an intensely Jewish musical and, although musical theatre is hugely populated by Jewish composers and performers, Fiddler is perhaps the only mainstream musical that deals directly with the Jewish experience. So, although your children might know ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ by cultural absorption, I would urge you to bring them all to see this piece. It’s a fundamental part of who we are and I think it’s going to be a great production.”

Directing and choreographing the RCMT show is Valerie Easton and the musical director is James Bryson, who will lead a full orchestra. Kimmel will be joined by three other Jewish community members on stage: Michael Wilkinson (Fiddler), Zack Wolfman (Perchik) and Erin Palm (Fruma Sarah). They and the rest of the cast have a challenge in making their iconic characters their own.

“I have made the character my own by growing a real beard!” said Kimmel, noting that it took three months to grow and has changed his life. “Seriously though, the fact that the role is iconic has been a real issue for me because I actually grew up watching that movie and I think that it is not for no reason that Topol is world-famous from only one identifiable role. I think it’s a brilliant movie and a landmark performance, so it has been quite difficult not to copy what he’s doing. At the same time, I think what would be worse would be to try and do something different just for the sake of being different. So, what I’ve tried to do, and I guess what I always try to do, is find the truth of the story for that character and play that. But they are big boots to fill, no doubt, and an even bigger beard!”

“It’s definitely hard when there is a fixed idea of how a character should be,” Wolfman said. “I am steering clear of the trap by approaching the role like I would any other. I look at the words on the page and the circumstances the character finds himself in. The show is iconic because the characters and story are well written, and it makes our jobs easier as actors because that information is all on the page for us to use…. When I say the same words in the same order, it is the character, and I suppose it will become my own when it comes out of my mouth!”

For her part, Palm said she loves “when an actor really takes risks and brings new life to the characters they play. I think I make Fruma Sarah my own by really trying to understand what she wants, in the most honest way possible.”

Fiddler on the Roof was one of the first musicals Palm ever saw. “It made a huge impact on me,” she said. So, for her, part of the fun of being in this production “comes out of years of being excited about the opportunity to do the show and then getting a chance to do it. I love the music and the story.”

Part of the challenge is to convey the time and place of the action. Based on Tevye and his Daughters and other stories by Sholem Aleichem, Fiddler is set in 1905 in Anatevka, a fictional Russian village. It centres around Tevye and his efforts to maintain Jewish traditions while trying to keep his wife and five daughters happy and safe.

“Being that we don’t live in Anatevka and it is 2016,” said Palm, “it’s relating to those social and economic differences and times that makes it a challenge … capturing the old world feeling in a way that is truthful and heartwarming, that’s what sweeps you away to Anatevka, that’s the charm of the show.”

For Wolfman, “Having the opportunity to play a character that is playing against the traditional values of the characters in the play is fun. Perchik has more modern sensibilities and, in a way, he acts as a proxy for the audience to see the differences in beliefs on stage. It is fun to play a character with a strong point of view who is willing to fight for what he believes in…. The challenge for me has been finding the balance between the Perchik who is warm and loving, and the hard-nosed revolutionary. Of course, both sides exist within the character, so it’s interesting to grapple with what comes out at what times. It’s an ongoing question for me so, as my old acting professor Stephen Heatley would say, I’m ‘keeping the questions open and active.’”

In a somewhat similar vein – trying to find balance within a character – Wilkinson said, “It’s been very fun and exciting for me to find the way the Fiddler fits in as a metaphor in Tevye’s mind but also has a personality and character of his own.”

Not only does Wilkinson have to figure that out, but he is also playing a Russian dancer in the song “To Life.” He said that Easton “has given us wonderful choreography and the Russian dancing is particularly fun, but also challenging – especially since most of us don’t have training in Russian dance!”

Kimmel described Easton as “one of the real jewels of this city’s theatre community and we have worked together enough times now that I know I can allow her to guide me in my performance and that, if I trust her, she will make it a better one. That’s meant to be the director’s job, I guess, and it’s what you always hope for as an actor, but it doesn’t happen nearly as often as you would hope.”

Last year, Kimmel worked with both Easton and Bryson on RCMT’s My Fair Lady. “Both brilliant,” he said. “Also, there are a few cast members from My Fair Lady that have reappeared in Yiddish garb and large beards and it’s always great to be on stage with people you know and trust. However, all the people I have close relationships with in the piece – my wife and five daughters – are all performers I’ve never worked with before and that’s quite exciting.”

It is also Wilkinson’s second production with Easton, Bryson and RCMT. He was in the ensemble of Annie in 2014. “The Vancouver theatre community isn’t huge, so usually there are some familiar faces when a new production starts rehearsals. I’ve met a bunch of new wonderful people in this production, as well as a few with whom I’ve worked before.”

Wolfman was at the University of British Columbia with a couple of the other leads, including Jenika Schofield, and has acted before with several members of the cast. “In fact,” he noted, “Jenika actually played my love interest in Titus: The Light and Delightful Musical Comedy and now she’s playing Hodel, who falls in love with Perchik. Crazy, right?!”

While this is his first time working with Easton and Bryson, Wolfman said, “Patrick Ray, our piano player, accompanied a show I did in the past, and maybe saved my life musically more than once.”

Palm worked with Easton right after graduating from Capilano University. It was in an Arts Club on Tour production of the musical The Thing About Men, where, she said, “I played 13 different characters, that was a highlight of my career. I just love her as a director. She’s just so present and physical in her directing skills. She’s very giving, she’s very much an actor’s director…. Also, I am a big fan of female directors. There are so few of them and so, when you get an opportunity to work with a director with such a clear vision who is a woman, I celebrate that.”

Palm also knows some of Fiddler’s cast from previous acting work, she took voice lessons for awhile with Sylvia Zaradic (Yente) and did a video with Natasha Zacher (Tzeitel) and others called Finding Face Time: A YouTube Musical!, which is online.

In the casting process, Palm was called back for two different roles: Tzeitel and Fruma. She said she is grateful to have been chosen “as part of the vision of the show and cast as Fruma Sarah.”

“I think the casting is very well put together and I couldn’t imagine the show being cast any other way,” she said. “We really have worked together as a collective, the chorus is really strong. There are a lot of talented actors and singers in this show, lots of young and up-and-coming talent, too, who really bring something special, new and exciting to the roles they play.”

Initially, Wolfman wasn’t sure for which role he would audition. During Oliver! at Theatre Under the Stars last summer, he said, “[M]any of the cast members in the show were buzzing about Fiddler on the Roof auditions during the run. A fellow cast mate, Kat Palmer, said I should go out for Perchik if I got a chance, so the show fell on my radar. When I first auditioned, I was thinking about Motel and Fyedka as possible roles, but after re-reading the script, I definitely had my heart set on Perchik and that’s what happened!”

When Wilkinson auditioned, he said, “I had to sing a song in front of the directing team and take part in the group dance call. I didn’t go in with a specific role in mind and was just hoping to be a part of the show in some capacity. It worked out well and I’m having a great time being a part of the production.”

As for the patriarch of the show, Kimmel said, “I originally auditioned for the role of Yente the Matchmaker but I lost that role, unfortunately, and had to settle for Tevye. No, in reality, I think Tevye has always been one of the roles that I felt I would have to do at some point or other, being Jewish for a start, and just loving this play since I was a child. So, I asked Val if I could audition. Honestly, I thought I was a bit young for the role and I still feel I struggle with the [emotional] weight of Tevye…. Also, there are a few performers in town that have been very successful playing the role and I was pretty sure they would be offered it, but it seems my audition – together with a large cheque made out to Val – clinched it for me.”

RCMT’s Fiddler on the Roof takes place at Massey Theatre, 735 Eighth Ave., in New Westminster, Wednesday-Sunday, April 7-23. Ticket are $47 ($38 seniors/students, $29 children 13 and under) from ticketsnw.ca and 604-521-5050.