''Old Wicked Songs'' is a two-character play written by

Jon Marans ''Old Wicked Songs'' is a two-character play written by Jon Marans. It was his first play, first performed in 1995, and received a nomination for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Productions ''Old Wicked Songs'' was first produced at the Waln ...

. It was his first play, first performed in 1995, and received a nomination for the 1996

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

in Drama.

Productions

''Old Wicked Songs'' was first produced at the

Walnut Street Theatre The Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1809 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by the Walnut ...

, Philadelphia, opening on April 25, 1995. Directed by Frank Ferrante, the cast was Hal Robinson (Professor Josef Mashkan) and Roy Abramsohn (Stephen Hoffman). Marans, Jon. "Introduction", ''Old Wicked Songs'', Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1996, , pp. 4-5 The play premiered

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

at the Jewish Repertory Theatre Playhouse 91, presented by

The Barrow Group The Barrow Group is a non-profit performing arts group located in New York City focused on empowering actors, writers, and directors through simple, clear, spontaneous storytelling. The company prioritizes accessibility, diversity, and excellence, ...

, from October 28, 1995 to November 26, 1995. Directed by Seth Barrish, the cast was Hal Robinson (Professor Josef Mashkan) and Michael Stuhlbarg (Stephen Hoffman). The play was presented Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre from August 16, 1996 to March 9, 1997. Directed by Seth Barrish, the cast consisted of

Justin Kirk Justin Kirk (born May 28, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Prior Walter in Mike Nichols's screen adaptation of ''Angels in America'', for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting A ...

(Stephen Hoffman) and Hal Robinson (Professor Josef Mashkan). The New Zealand premiere was at the Fortune Theatre in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

from September to October 1998, and revived at the Court Theatre,

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, from September to October 1999. The production was directed by Jon Waite, with Donald Hope Evans (Mashkan) and Michael Lee Porter as (Stephen). The Apple Tree Theatre presented the play at the

Metropolis Performing Arts Centre The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre is a professional theatre company in Arlington Heights, Illinois, founded in 2000. They often have over 300 performances of more than 40 different productions with over 70,000 patrons each season. List of ...

, in

Arlington Heights, Illinois Arlington Heights is a municipality in Cook County with a small portion in Lake County in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of the city's downtown. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 77,676. Per the ...

from October 18, 2000 to November 12. This is a revival of the Apple Tree Theatre production from February 1999, with

Daniel J. Travanti Daniel J. Travanti (born Danielo Giovanni Travanti; March 7, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known for playing police captain List of Hill Street Blues characters#Main characters, Frank Furillo in the television drama series ''Hill Stree ...

and Tom Daugherty starring in both productions. The play was produced in England at the

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a fin ...

and was later moved to the

Gielgud Theatre The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, at the corner of Rupert Street, in the City of Westminster, London. The house currently has 986 seats on three levels. The theatre was designed by W. G. R. Sprague an ...

in the West End in 1996, directed by Elijah Moshinsky with

Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor. His work included lead roles in films and television series such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), ''Who ...

and James Callis (Stephen). Between March 31 and May 10, 2008, it was produced at its venue city, in Vienna's English theatre in Austria.

Characters

*Professor Josef Mashkan, Viennese, late-50s *Stephen Hoffman, American, 25 years old

Plot

''Old Wicked Songs'' is about the relationship between a Viennese music professor in his late-50s named Professor Josef Mashkan and his newly acquired student Stephen Hoffman. Hoffman is a 25-year-old pianist who at one time was considered to be a prodigy in his field, but suffers from severe burn out and has not been performing for a year. The play takes place in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in Professor Mashkan's rehearsal studio. It begins in the spring of 1986 and continues through to summer. The national and international political background is

Kurt Waldheim Kurt Josef Waldheim (; 21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. While he was running for th ...

's election to

n federal president in the spring of 1986. Because of Waldheim's alleged involvement in war crimes in the Balkans during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

his nomination was fervently opposed worldwide, e.g. by the

World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act as ...

. The protests, however, resulted in a stubborn reaction of the Austrian electorate and a clear Waldheim victory in a run-off election. During his presidency he was isolated internationally and put on the US Nazi watchlist. Upon his arrival in Vienna, Hoffman is under the impression that he will be studying accompaniment under the instruction of Professor Schiller. However, much to his surprise, he must first study singing for three months under the tutelage of Professor Mashkan. At the very start of the play, Marans introduces Mashkan's racial slurs towards the Jewish race. It is later discovered that this is a defense mechanism used by Mashkan to cover up his dark secret. Through his teachings, Mashkan tells Hoffman that there is both "sadness and joy" in music and that he should experience real life examples to better connect him to the message of composer

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

's song cycle ''

Dichterliebe ''Dichterliebe'', "A Poet's Love" (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann (Opus number, Op. 48). The texts for the 16 songs come from the ''Lyrisches Intermezzo'' by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as pa ...

'' and the poetry of

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

. Hoffman then tells Mashkan his plans to go to the opera to experience joy and to then visit the

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

for sadness. After a series of lessons, Mashkan’s slandering of the Jewish culture begins to build a strong tension between him and Hoffman, who is Jewish. This is aggravated when Hoffman, fulfilling a promise given to his father, actually visits Dachau. After this experience, he skips Mashkan's lessons for over two weeks, wandering about in Vienna. When he returns, he tells Mashkan the whole story, including the night he spent with Sarah, a young Jew he met at the bus in Dachau. The recollection of this visit to the horrors of a concentration camp and the intense lovemaking afterwards again brings up the theme of "sadness and joy". After an attempt at suicide, Mashkan is found lying on his couch by Hoffman. During the process of rescuing Mashkan, Hoffman notices a number tattooed on Mashkan's forearm, a clear sign that Mashkan is a Holocaust survivor.

Background

''Old Wicked Things'' is Marans' earliest play. Marans incorporates the poetry of Heinrich Heine and the music of Robert Schumann into this series of events. Through the translation sessions between Mashkan and Hoffman, Marans creates a link between two generations that find they have much more in common than they think. Marans had previously studied Schumann's ''Dichterliebe'' in Vienna in 1978. Marans said: "I went there to learn singing because I wanted to be a lyricist. As a lyricist, I wanted to know how the singer felt." Schumann's song cycle is "infused with a 'young man's anger and passion.'" Marans stated, "Since I was 21 at the time and dealing with my own 'young man's rage', that's what I responded to."

Awards

*1996

Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...

finalist *Winner of the L.A. Drama Logue Award

Adaptations

''Old Wicked Songs'' is being developed as a film, with

Avi Levy Avi is a given name, usually masculine, often a diminutive of Avram, Avraham, etc. It is sometimes feminine and a diminutive of the Hebrew spelling of Abigail. People with the given name include: * Avi (born 1937), Newbery award-winning Ameri ...

Jon Marans

Jon Marans is an American playwright,

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

, and editor. He graduated from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

with a degree in mathematics, with a minor in music. He is a recipient of a 2013

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. Other works by Marans include ''A Strange and Separate People'', ''Jumping for Joy'', ''Legacy of the Dragonslayers'', ''Opportunity Knocks'', the musical ''Irrationals'' (music by Edward Thomas), ''The New Carol Burnett Show'' and ''

The Temperamentals ''The Temperamentals'' is a 2009 play by Jon Marans. It chronicles the founding of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBT rights organization in the United States, and the love affair of two of its founding members, Harry Hay (Thoma ...

'' (2009).''The Temperamentals''
lortel.org, accessed November 17, 2015 ''The Temperamentals'' is in film development with Daryl Roth Productions.

References

{{reflist

External links

*Marans, Jon. Old Wicked Songs. New York: Fireside Theatre, 1996.

1996 plays American plays Vienna in fiction Jews and Judaism in fiction