An evening with Theodore Bikel and a LOT of friends

DFW

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Tue Jun-16-09 03:17 AM
Original message

An evening with Theodore Bikel and a LOT of friends

Edited on Tue Jun-16-09 04:08 AM by DFW

I still can't believe Theo was 85 today. He was out there on the stage half the time,
plus at the reception and the cast party afterward. I left just after 1:30 AM. Theo
shouted "da-MOY! (home!)" and I agreed. I was zapped and I have to fly back to Germany
tomorrow.

At the pre-show reception, I got to meet some of my teenage musical heroes, such as
Tom Paxton and Peter Yarrow (as in PPM). I also had a funny encounter with a woman
who I thought looked familiar, and she said she thought she recognized me as well.
Well, as it turned out, we had never met or heard of each other before, but she
turned out to be one amazing musical talent. Her name was Susan Werner, and she
was so good, some people here must be fans of hers. Arlo Guthrie, to my disappointment,
didn't show up for the reception or the cast party, so I never got to meet him.
He showed up on stage and disappeared immediately after the performance. There
was an accordionist from Bosnia who now lives in Holland whom I may see again
tomorrow, as her flight back to Amsterdam leaves just after my flight to Paris, and
KLM and Air France should be in the same terminal now.

There were many other musical talents too numerous to list. The show was an absolute
delight. Klezmer, American folk by Peter and Paul (Mary Travers is still suffering
from cancer treatment and was too weak to come), Alan Alda acting as MC. We sat
right next to Dr. Ruth, and she nearly fell over when she saw us (I brought my
elder daughter). Theo closed the show with Dorogoi Dlinnuyu, which is an old Russian
folk song ("Via the long road!), but better known in the UK and the USA as "Those
were the days," with Theo singing the first verse in the original Russian, and then
all the others adding verses they had written about Theo in English, and then singing
the chorus to "Those were the days." There was a lesson of the magic and the universality
of music, seeing Theo Bikel, Tom Paxton, Arlo Guthrie and a host of Klezmer musicians singing
together.

Theo told me that the city of Vienna, Austria, from which he fled for his life as a Jew
in the Nazi era so many decades ago, is offering him a decoration as an honored son of
the city, and we may get together there later this year if it happens before I have to
leave again for the States.

My head is still swimming from it all and I have already fallen alseep twice trying to
write this. My daughter took two photos, which I hope to publish soon. The whole event
was simultaneously a charity fundraiser for the Juvenile Law Center, which helps out
under-age kids who need legal representation but can't afford it. They are the ones who
helped uncover the corrupt judge in Pennsylvania who was in cahoots financially with
the detention center who got money when he sent them there. DU had posts covering the
scandal when it broke.

The whole event was the brain-child of Theo's wife Tamara, who is both an accomplished
pianist and conductor in her own right.