June 19, 2014
The SuburbanJune 18, 2014
By Linda Zlatkin
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On Thursday, June 12, the bio-musical Soul Doctor: Journey of a Rock Star Rabbi opened with an impressive performance to a packed house at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts. Starring Adam Stotland, who steps right into character in his role as Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the beloved yet controversial father of popular Jewish music, it is based on the rabbi’s fascinating life as we follow him through his triumphs and tribulations. Carlebach was born in Berlin in 1925 and fled to New York with his parents and siblings in 1939. Known as the singing guitar-playing rabbi, he is the charismatic voice of the Jewish religious revival movement in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s who created a revolutionary musical sound that saw him perform with influential musical figures like Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. He died in 1994.
Inspired by jazz singer Nina Simone (Coco Thompson), who he meets at a Greenwich Village nightclub where she is singing the song, I Put a Spell on You, the musical follows Carlebach’s introduction to soul and gospel and the unlikely friendship that develops between them. They realize they have many things in common. Besides their love of music, they are both victims of hatred, she with the South, and he with Nazi Germany. We watch them each come into their own, she becoming the “High Priestess of Soul”, he getting a record contract to produce his unique melodies.
The floor of the Segal Centre stage is designed like an old record and the walls are like a library. The atmosphere is lively and the story keeps you focused right from the beginning when we see Carlebach as a child, witnessing a Jewish man singing in the streets getting shot by a Nazi. This experience drives Carlebach to want to bring light where there is darkness and to heal broken souls.
But the singing Rabbi’s behaviour is considered scandalous in his community and his typical Orthodox parents (Rhona Sobol as Mother and Sam Stein as Father) do not understand. As the show begins and ends with the Israeli national anthem, ‘Am Yisrael Chai’, you cannot help but be moved by the themes that emerge, which include a young man’s rite of passage, the struggle to define oneself as an individual, despite being culturally labelled, and his desire to gain approval from his family.
This is a play that elicits so many emotions while being entertaining at the same time; it is without a doubt, a prescription for your heart. No wonder there was a standing ovation.
The music and additional lyrics are by Carlebach, the book is by Daniel S. Wise and the lyrics are by David Schechter. Playing through June 29, it is co-directed by Bryna Wasserman and Rachelle Glait and musically directed by Nick Burgess.
For more information, visit www. segalcentre.org/