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"Potok. Bikel. An embarrassment of riches at
Paper Mill."
Paul Kropfl, left, John Lloyd Young, middle, and Theodore Bikel in
a scene from "The Chosen" at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ
"A Father, a Son and Their Struggle"
'The Chosen'
Paper Mill Playhouse
February 29, 2004
by Neil Genzlinger
Recognizing that a novel might be adapted for the stage is one thing. Figuring out how to do it is quite another.
Sixteen years ago, an attempt to turn Chaim Potok's best-selling novel "The Chosen" into a musical was a colossal failure -- good intentions attached to the wrong vehicle. Now the right vehicle has turned up at Paper Mill: no music, no spectacle, just the core of Potok's heartfelt story, beautifully acted.
How far is this rendition of "The Chosen" from the 1988 musical, which closed off Broadway after a week? The musical had a cast of more than 30; the drama, first staged in Philadelphia in 1999, has just five. There is a star here -- Theodore Bikel, who is great -- but the play would work just as well without a marquee name, because the story is the main attraction. The adaptation, written by Potok (who died in 2002) and Aaron Posner, is proof that when it comes to theater, smaller is often better.
The play, set in Brooklyn in the 1940's, tells of the friendship between two young men from very different sides of Judaism. Reuven Malter (Paul Kropfl) is from an Orthodox household, and his father (Mitchell Greenberg) is a scholar who encourages intellectual curiosity. Danny Saunders (John Lloyd Young) is Hasidic and is being raised to take over for his father (Mr. Bikel), the spiritual leader of a community that has immigrated to the United States to escape persecution in Russia. A grown-up Reuven (Richard Topol) acts as narrator on occasion, giving the play a reflective glow reminiscent of "Conversations With My Father," Herb Gardner's 1992 Broadway success.
Reuven and Danny meet as teenagers, as baseball rivals, but soon they are friends and confidants. Danny in particular has a lot to confide. He is a brilliant and curious young man, but his father wants those gifts applied only to his faith, not to the secular world. Danny, though, sneaks off to the library to read the forbidden works of Freud and others, gradually coming to reject the life his father wants to impose on him.
"He's trapped," Danny says of his father. "He was born trapped. But I can't stay trapped."
Meanwhile, Reuven is making decisions of his own about the future, and world events are intruding -- first the discovery of the horrors of the Holocaust at the end of World War II, then the debate over the founding of the state of Israel. The latter subject ultimately severs the friendship; among its many other values, "The Chosen" serves as a modern-day reminder that Judaism is not a united front, with many shades of opinion on matters secular and religious.
The play, though, is not merely "Jewish theater." Its themes of father-son communication, friendship, faith and personal destiny are universal, and this production, another of Paper Mill's joint efforts with the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida, explores them with an admirable subtlety. David Ellenstein's restrained direction, an elegant set by Michael Anania and deft lighting by Michael J. Eddy work together perfectly.
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