Laugh Tracks: A History of Jewish Musical Satire w/Screenwriter David Misch
Hosted By: My Jewish Learning
Is there something distinctly Jewish about musical satire written by Jewish songwriters? No. Case closed, move along now, nothing to see here.
Or… Yes.
Popular music often reflects traditional Jewish values like social justice (“Sail Away,” Randy Newman’s horrifying/gorgeous evocation of the slave trade), love of learning (Tom Lehrer racing through the periodic table of the elements to a Gilbert and Sullivan melody), dealing with evil (“No Way To Stop It,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s acerbic critique of political accomodation), and even the Holocaust (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” creator Rachel Bloom’s “Remember That We Suffered”).
In this multimedia presentation, celebrated screenwriter David Misch looks at a wide range of songs — from the lighthearted mocking of the Gershwins’ “Blah Blah Blah” to Lieber and Stoller’s witty “Fifties Rock” to Jerome Robbins and the New York City Ballet’s “The Mistake Waltz” — to explore how Jewish musical satire connects with the mournful merriment of klezmer, the paintings of Marc Chagall and the stories of Sholem Aleichem: an awareness of and sympathy for our human condition.
