2nd Review of Ohel Concert
Last night, the lucky 1,000 people in the audience at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall experienced an evening of true originality and inspiration. Never before in the history of the Jewish concert stage has there been such a seamless synthesis of music, film, story, dramatic staging, humor, and a memorable message. Continue Reading in Full article
Featuring performances by Lipa Shmeltzer, Ohad, and Abie Rotenberg, the concert was produced by A Dove and Kol Rom Multimedia, and was the collaboration of talented professionals utilizing collective experience in the fields of music, theater, video and film production, and original scripting and lyrics. Musical director Shai Bachaer led the musicians of the Shloime Dachs orchestra. Norman Gildin of OHEL was the executive producer.
With huge stars like Lipa, Abie, and Ohad, you might expect a solid, loud concert with all the effects. Instead it was a very intimate evening with these talented individuals using their songs to inspire us in these troubling times. Alice Tully Hall is not a huge concert venue, but last night it was a place where everyone could see the stage and the performers sang like they were there just for you.
The integrated film, produced and directed by Chananya (CJ) Kramer of Kol Rom Multimedia, was shot on location in multiple states as well as in Israel.
Upon entering the landmark theater – the audience knew immediately they were in for something special. Production designer and concert director Bernie Dove created a raised multi-leveled platform stage, which was an impressive, internally lit construction allowing the orchestra to be featured on stage throughout the show with singers performing on the platforms all around and above them. A custom built backdrop encased the three video screens.
As opposed to standard concerts, nothing about the evening was random. Every song, scene and segment was coordinated to propel the story, and the singers’ performances were intrinsic to that framework.
The show began with “Open Your Heart”, an original theme song composed by concert producer Avram Zamist with lyrics by script and screenplay writer Malka Leah Josephs. The song featured Abie Rotenberg on video, packing his car and singing about going to New York for the Ohel concert. We then cut to Ohad in Israel, singing in Hebrew and English about his excitement for traveling to Manhattan to perform, and suddenly, Ohad and Abie each appeared on stage live to finish out the song. Back on the video screen, Lipa is seen choosing his brightest bekeshe as he sings about this show that’s “all new, it’s a chiddush…hope they understand my Yiddish!” and then he too appeared on the stage’s highest platform, overcoat on and multicolored costumes in tow. He then descended into the audience to pull out “Bernie Kaufman” (played by actor Dan Brody), who becomes the central character of the evening.
Now on stage, Bernie tells the audience that it all started the day he was sent on a business trip to Israel by his boss: Elly Kleinman of Americare. (A major sponsor of the event). The audience’s attention then shifts from the stage up to the large video screens where we see Bernie navigating a very stressful workday. In this first segment of the film, we learn that Bernie is struggling to balance work with family responsibilities, and that he has a special needs son with whom he has trouble connecting. Fielding numerous tasks and a surprise visit from the boss, Bernie gets a call from his son but gets distracted, winds up leaving him on hold, and never finishes the conversation. Bernie’s over-eager assistant suggests that he “take up some Tai Chi,” and advises his overworked boss to “Stop- don’t think about it, ‘cuz tomorrow is a brand new day.” In an attempt to drown out his assistant’s too-cheerful admonitions, Bernie slowly turns up the volume on the Nachum Segal radio show wherein the audience hears the voice of - and then sees Nachum Segal himself in his studio, “broadcasting” his introduction to that very same hit song. In seamless transition, the music is then picked up by Ohad - now singing “Stop!” in full spotlight on the stage.
And so the night continued, shifting from musical number to film and back again with the live Bernie character appearing on stage at various intervals to interact directly with the singers. At no point was there a song that did not fit smoothly into the framework of the show. As Bernie meets more characters along his journey to Israel - and toward his own new and improved self, the videos segue directly into more musical numbers or medleys on the stage, each time in a new and suprising way.
Songs such as Abie's classic Hamalach Hagoel, Ohad's soaring Boee Kallah, and Lipa's popular Hentelach to name a few, each not only fit into the story- but clearly enhanced and elevated the powerful message within the story. An idealistic yeshiva student sharing a taxi ride with Bernie inspired a Torah themed medly from Abie (accompanied by the young but very talented Dovid Dachs) and Lipa; A comic scene with an Israeli hotel check-in clerk who tries to convince Bernie of the merits of giving joy to a bride and groom getting married that night left the audience in stiches and segued into the upbeat wedding themed “Binyan Adai Ad” by Lipa; and a poignant scene in the airport coffe shop shared with a Holocaust survivor led directly into a pre-intermission Emuna themed medly by all three performers. At that point, without exception, every one of the “hentelach” in the audience was raised in time to the music as the crowd, engulfed in colorful lighting, enthusiastically responded to the beat and the uplifting message of belief.
And if it wasn't enough for this select audience to be treated to an integrated evening of professional quality film, live orchestra and top singers, they also enjoyed a number of surprising cameo performances including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Rabbi Paysach Krohn.
In an artistic highlight of the evening, Bernie is seen on stage, his back to the audience in a dreamy trance-like state while swirling lights engulf him. Emerging slowly from a hidden space deep within the platforms of the stage set, Lipa begins his stirring song: “Chalom Chalamti”. With the help of a violinist (the talented Jonathan Keren), Lipa encircles Bernie until the song comes to a close and it is time for Bernie to “Wake Up”! This song becomes an opportunity for Bernie to wake-up to the fact that his life needs some re-prioritizing. Bernie wonders how he can find the time to do all the different things demanded of him, and Abie reminds him that “there is a time for everything… Lakol Zman Vo’es”.
In a final dramatic scene at the hotel, Bernie meets an old friend, Baruch, who he hasn’t seen since Yeshiva days. The friend opens up to him about his own special needs son who has been helped by Ohel and is having a bar mitzvah the next day at the Kotel. Bernie is moved as his story because it hits home. He says he wishes he could be more like Baruch, but then takes Baruch’s message to heart: “You don’t need to be more like me, Bernie, You need to be more like you.”
Lipa then performed his well known “Poshiter Yid”, but this time he sang it with all new original lyrics that emphasized the themes of Bernie’s journey. As the film is re-capped with clips of each character on screen, the song reminded the audience of the messages of Torah from the Yeshiva student, Tefillah from Rabbi Krohn, Emunah from The old man, and reaching your own true potential as a “Poshiter Yid”. Lipa ended this dramatic number with a message to Bernie that he is ready to rise to the challenge of becoming his better self.
The evening’s finale was a perfect blend of music and story. With the opening stirring sounds of Lipa’s “Hashiveinu”, we see Bernie on film at the Kotel at night, crying out to Hashem in prayer and he tells his young son that “things will be different from now on. I’m making some changes. I love you.” We then see Bernie joining his old friend Baruch at Baruch’s son’s bar mitzvah. There, he is reunited with the old man and the yeshiva student. As the music reached its crescendo, all of the characters were seen dancing together at the Kotel in unity and simcha.
Abie took the stage to sing “Shema Koleinu” while beautiful images of each of the characters in Yerushalayim were seen on the screens above. The professionally filmed footage brought the characters to life –literally - as one by one as the actors from the film were revealed in spots live on the stage ending with Bernie himself.
In commemoration of his fifteenth yartzheit, all of the cast and singers joined together in a tribute to the great Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Z”l, by singing “Am Yisroel Chai”, and the show ended with a final chorus of the original theme song “Open Your Heart, Let the Music Inspire”.
As the credits rolled, funny outtakes from the film were shown on the side screens giving insight into the magnitude of the creating of such a production. In response to the audience, still clapping and not leaving, the singers came back on stage for one final curtain call/chorus of the night’s theme.
Thank you OHEL – you have taken Jewish concerts to new heights with a night of truly unique and meaningful quality entertainment!
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