Synopsis
In the mid-seventies, British playwright Arnold Wesker decided to rewrite Shakespeare's anti-Semitic MERCHANT OF VENICE, making Shylock the moral center of the play instead of its scapegoat. After initial frustrations trying to get the play produced in London, Wesker found backers in New York and secured comic Zero Mostel for the lead role. Then infighting and Mostel's death--shortly after the play's Philadelphia preview--doomed the play, and it was shelved after a disappointing Broadway opening. Wesker recounts the story of this torturous process in this memoir.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1999-05-01 |
| Size | | Height: | 8.8 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 22.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
Shakespeare's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, the epitome of money-grabbing avarice and cruelty is, Arnold Wesker believes, "a libel on the Jews" and a reflection of Elizabethan racism. Wesker, one of Britain's most revered playwrights, decided to create a counter portrait to the Bard's offensive character by writing his own play, Shylock, in which the Jew is compassionate, intelligent, and deeply moral. John Dexter, the world-renowned director, arranged to have it open on New York's Broadway in 1977 with Zero Mostel in the lead. The play promised to be a great box office draw, with advance bookings high, thanks to Mostel. But after the first preview in Philadelphia Mostel fell ill and died within days. The play opened on Broadway with Mostel's understudy, but its momentum had been fatally damaged and it spiralled into disaster. In this remarkable book Wesker records how the people involved -- including many of New York's cultural elite -- interacted in the making, and unmaking, of an extraordinary theatrical event.
Shakespeare's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice-the epitome of money-grabbing avarice and cruelty-is, Arnold Wesker believes, "a libel on the Jews" and a reflection of Elizabethan racism. Wesker, one of Britain's most revered playwrights, decided to create a counter portrait to the Bard's offensive character by writing his own play, Shylock, in which the Jew is compassionate, intelligent, and deeply moral. John Dexter, the world-renowned director, arranged to have it open on Broadway in 1977 with Zero Mostel in the lead. The play promised to be a great box-office draw, with high advance bookings, thanks to Mostel. But after the first preview in Philadelphia, Mostel fell ill and died within days. The play opened on Broadway with Mostel's understudy, but its momentum had been fatally damaged and it spiraled into disaster. In this extraordinary book, Wesker records how the people involved-including many of New York's cultural elite-interacted in the making, and unmaking, of an extraordinary theatrical event.
Industry Reviews
"[T]he story of the play's demise is remarkable on several counts: the world in Wesker' diaries--the times, places, and people he records/creates--is as vivid and memorable as anything out of Dickens; and the issues it explores (art vs. commerce, creator vs. interpreter/producer/manager/middleman, Jew vs. Christian) are central not only to (the decline and fall of) theater but our culture generally. That SHYLOCK 'failed' is less interesting than the fact that it was--and, thanks to this book, still is--a medium for the witness of powerful forces."
Amdahl
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