Anne Frank. The Musical.

[SteveLaura 0]

Source

A controversial new musical telling the life story of Anne Frank opens in Madrid later this month.

The producers call it an educational and sensitive portrayal of Anne's two years in hiding from the Nazis during World War II...

Watching Anne Frank: A Song to Life, I soon found myself wondering whether the teenage heroine's sense of fun would extend to this much-hyped and occasionally kitsch new show.

Would Anne enjoy seeing herself standing on a revolving stage under neon lights and twinkling stars, with eyes closed and arms outstretched, Titanic-style, while belting out a power ballad about flying like a seagull to freedom?

And would she relish a bizarre fantasy sequence, in which her character peeks in, Cinderella-like, on a gala ball of menacing Nazis in carnival masks? ...

The human diary first appears in a red chiffon dress with a fat sequinned belt and big hair - much like Wonder Woman going to a black-tie event. In the second act, Kitty loses the plot altogether, appearing to confuse herself with Audrey Hepburn.

And then there are the Nazis. Imagine the loudest, meanest, jackbooted thug that you have ever seen in a war film, and then have him sing in a belligerent baritone as he enters from stage-left amid cascades of dry ice and moody blue lighting.

It seems a little over-the-top, that is until another Nazi appears together with a German Shepherd.

The thespian canine showed immense composure as, during the Franks' betrayal and arrest, the Kommandant shouted and the strobe-lights flickered fiercely.

The dog eventually started whimpering, as if he instinctively knew he was on the wrong side. As he exited with his handler, the Spanish audience applauded.

Is it wrong that I would really like to see this..?

Edited February 22, 2008 by SteveLaura

[panamania79 2]

Source

A controversial new musical telling the life story of Anne Frank opens in Madrid later this month.

The producers call it an educational and sensitive portrayal of Anne's two years in hiding from the Nazis during World War II...

Watching Anne Frank: A Song to Life, I soon found myself wondering whether the teenage heroine's sense of fun would extend to this much-hyped and occasionally kitsch new show.

Would Anne enjoy seeing herself standing on a revolving stage under neon lights and twinkling stars, with eyes closed and arms outstretched, Titanic-style, while belting out a power ballad about flying like a seagull to freedom?

And would she relish a bizarre fantasy sequence, in which her character peeks in, Cinderella-like, on a gala ball of menacing Nazis in carnival masks? ...

The human diary first appears in a red chiffon dress with a fat sequinned belt and big hair - much like Wonder Woman going to a black-tie event. In the second act, Kitty loses the plot altogether, appearing to confuse herself with Audrey Hepburn.

And then there are the Nazis. Imagine the loudest, meanest, jackbooted thug that you have ever seen in a war film, and then have him sing in a belligerent baritone as he enters from stage-left amid cascades of dry ice and moody blue lighting.

It seems a little over-the-top, that is until another Nazi appears together with a German Shepherd.

The thespian canine showed immense composure as, during the Franks' betrayal and arrest, the Kommandant shouted and the strobe-lights flickered fiercely.

The dog eventually started whimpering, as if he instinctively knew he was on the wrong side. As he exited with his handler, the Spanish audience applauded.

Is it wrong that I would really like to see this..?

Not at all.I also would find it interesting.A couple of movies have already been done.

[mustang-sally 8]

Not at all

I have read her diaries and went round her house in Amsterdam.

I would love to see the musical one day.

[Alex+R 0]

I like it when they combine "musical" with anything I like. I'm such a girl.

Seriously though, didja know that Anne Frank's dad applied for a visa to the United States and it was denied? "Eew gross Jews," said the U.S. immigration officials at the time.

[Ban Hammer 13,252]

the entire concept is a bit morbid.

[panamania79 2]

I like it when they combine "musical" with anything I like. I'm such a girl.

Seriously though, didja know that Anne Frank's dad applied for a visa to the United States and it was denied? "Eew gross Jews," said the U.S. immigration officials at the time.

Wow,I was not aware of that.

[jundp 191]

The US Government denied many Jews visas during the years of World War II, including turning back an entire boat of Jewish children, most of whom died on their way to South America (many countries there agreed to offer asylum to the children). Definitely wasn't the best time in American history either, because we did absolutely nothing to help, even when we knew genocide was occurring.

I don't think I would want to see a musical version of Anne Frank's life, and I love musicals. But I guess after Dachau, the KZ Center in Nuernberg, and teaching Holocaust Studies for a couple of years I don't think I can equate "musical" to "Anne Frank." I'm sure it is tastefully done (I can't imagine anyone making a mockery of it) (other than Ali G) but I don't think I could stomach it.

(even though JCS is one of my favorite musicals!)

[♥Sora_9_Dam3a♥ 0]

i would want to see it, only because i wanna know how they made such a sad story into a musical

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

It seems to me that they are making light of a serious subject.

FDR was the responsible one for the the denial of the Jews during that time, especially that ship that is being talked about. Although if I remember right this event actually happened before we entered the war.

At which time there was suspicions of the treatment of the Jews but the not the full blown knowledge of extermination camps that were being planned but not quite operational yet.

[jundp 191]

It seems to me that they are making light of a serious subject.

FDR was the responsible one for the the denial of the Jews during that time, especially that ship that is being talked about. Although if I remember right this event actually happened before we entered the war.

At which time there was suspicions of the treatment of the Jews but the not the full blown knowledge of extermination camps that were being planned but not quite operational yet.

It was before we entered the war. I don't have my boos with me at home to quote, but I believe when we turned the ship away we did have full proof of the treatment of the Jews from eyewitnesses of the atrocities in the ghettos. We just chose to not believe, or maybe it was beyond comprehension? It still is, in many respects, beyond comprehension. As in, we know it happened, but most of us (unfortunately not everyone...) can't grasp how humans could treat other humans that way.

[Alex+R 0]

It seems to me that they are making light of a serious subject.

FDR was the responsible one for the the denial of the Jews during that time, especially that ship that is being talked about. Although if I remember right this event actually happened before we entered the war.

At which time there was suspicions of the treatment of the Jews but the not the full blown knowledge of extermination camps that were being planned but not quite operational yet.

It was before we entered the war. I don't have my boos with me at home to quote, but I believe when we turned the ship away we did have full proof of the treatment of the Jews from eyewitnesses of the atrocities in the ghettos. We just chose to not believe, or maybe it was beyond comprehension? It still is, in many respects, beyond comprehension. As in, we know it happened, but most of us (unfortunately not everyone...) can't grasp how humans could treat other humans that way.

That is a very optimistic way of looking at the situation.

My belief is that we knew what was happening (definitely we have evidence for that) but we chose to ignore it because we also were anti-Semitic.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

the entire concept is a bit morbid.

Charles.

Dancing and singing about the haulocaust? What a concept. Sheeesh!

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

It seems to me that they are making light of a serious subject.

FDR was the responsible one for the the denial of the Jews during that time, especially that ship that is being talked about. Although if I remember right this event actually happened before we entered the war.

At which time there was suspicions of the treatment of the Jews but the not the full blown knowledge of extermination camps that were being planned but not quite operational yet.

It was before we entered the war. I don't have my boos with me at home to quote, but I believe when we turned the ship away we did have full proof of the treatment of the Jews from eyewitnesses of the atrocities in the ghettos. We just chose to not believe, or maybe it was beyond comprehension? It still is, in many respects, beyond comprehension. As in, we know it happened, but most of us (unfortunately not everyone...) can't grasp how humans could treat other humans that way.

That is a very optimistic way of looking at the situation.

My belief is that we knew what was happening (definitely we have evidence for that) but we chose to ignore it because we also were anti-Semitic.

The St. Louis sailed out of Hamburg into the Atlantic Ocean in May 1939 carrying one non-Jewish and 936 (mainly German) Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution just before World War II.

The ship arrived in Cuba seeking asylum. The boat was kept waiting offshore while the Cuban government under Federico Laredo Brú disagreed on how much they could charge the passengers to come ashore. A small boat armada formed to keep people from jumping off and swimming ashore, and searchlights guarded it at night. The ship was then refused asylum, prompting a near mutiny. Two people attempted suicide and dozens more threatened to do the same. However, 28 of the refugees were able to disembark at Havana.

On 4 June 1939, the St. Louis was also refused permission to unload on orders of President Roosevelt as the ship waited in the Caribbean Sea between Florida and Cuba. Initially, Roosevelt showed limited willingness to take in some of those on board despite the Immigration Act of 1924, but vehement opposition came from Roosevelt's Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and from Southern Democrats — some of whom went so far as to threaten to withhold their support of Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election if this occurred.

The St. Louis then tried to enter Canada but was denied as well.

The ship sailed for Europe, first stopping in England, where 288 of the passengers disembarked and were thus spared from the Holocaust. The remaining 619 passengers disembarked at Antwerp. 224 were accepted into France, 214 into Belgium and 181 into Holland, safe from Hitler's persecution until the German invasions of these countries. [4][5] The ship without the passengers eventually sailed back to Hamburg, Germany. By using the survival rates for Jews in these countries, Thomas and Morgan-Witts estimate that 180 of the St. Louis refugees in France, along with 152 of those in Belgium and 60 of those in Holland survived the Holocaust, giving a total of 709 estimated survivors and 227 killed of the original 936 Jewish refugees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_St._Louis

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holo...t/timeline.html

In May 1939 - The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States and other countries and returns to Europe.

Dec 12, 1941 - The ship "Struma" leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In Feb. 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an "enemy target."

March 1942 - In occupied Poland, Belzec extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with permanent gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.

May 18, 1942 - The New York Times reports on an inside page that Nazis have machine-gunned over 100,000 Jews in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland and twice as many in western Russia.

June 30 and July 2, 1942 - The New York Times reports via the London Daily Telegraph that over 1,000,000 Jews have already been killed by Nazis.

Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons the Nazis are "now carrying into effect Hitler's oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe." U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.

From the time line I am reading here the denial for landing of the ship was in May of 1939.

While it was only beginning to be reported through the media about the Holocaust to the general public in early 1942.

A similar story was the Struma, that had an even more tragic conclusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struma_%28ship%29

Struma was a ship chartered to carry Jewish refugees from officially anti-Semitic Romania to British-controlled Palestine during World War II. On February 23, 1942, with its engine inoperable, the ship was towed from Istanbul through the Bosporus out to the Black Sea by Turkish authorities with its refugee passengers aboard, where it was left adrift. It was torpedoed and sunk within hours by the Soviet submarine SC 213 on February 24, killing 768 men, women and children, with only one survivor. This was amongst the largest maritime losses of civilian life during World War II.

What is really an optimistic view is making a musical of a young Jewish girl enduring the holocaust.

I am 100% in support of Israel and the Jewish people. So I am not anti-semitic. I really don't care about then, this is now.

Do you support Israel 100%?

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

Also there is this:

The Immigration Act of 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson-Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, Asian Exclusion Act, (43 Statutes-at-Large 153) was a United States federal law that limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, according to the Census of 1890. It excluded immigration to the US of Asians. It superseded the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The law was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s, as well as East Asians and Asian Indians, who were prohibited from immigrating entirely.

The Act passed with strong congressional support in the wake of intense lobbying. There were only six dissenting votes in the Senate and a handful of opponents in the House, the most vigorous of whom was freshman Brooklyn Representative Emanuel Celler. Over the succeeding four decades, Celler, who served for almost 50 years, made the repeal of the Act into a personal crusade. Some of the law's strongest supporters were influenced by Madison Grant and his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race. Grant was a eugenicist and an advocate of the racial hygiene theory. His data purported to show the superiority of the founding Northern European races. But most proponents of the law were rather concerned with upholding an ethnic status quo and avoiding competition with foreign workers.

The act was also strongly supported by Samuel Gompers, well-known union leader and founder of the AFL. Gompers was himself a Jewish immigrant, and uninterested in the accusations by many Jews of the time that the quotas were based purely on anti-Semitism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924

The Results

The Act halted "undesirable" immigration with quotas. The Act barred specific origins from the Asia-Pacific Triangle, which included Japan, China, the Philippines, Laos, Siam (Thailand), Cambodia, Singapore (then a British colony), Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar), India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Turkey, and Malaysia.[3] These immigrants, being non-white, were not eligible for naturalization, and the Act forbade the further immigration of any persons ineligible to be naturalized.[3].[3]

As an example of its effect, in the ten years following 1900, about 200,000 Italians immigrated every year. With the imposition of the 1924 quota, only 4,000 per year were allowed. At the same time, the annual quota for Germany was over 57,000. 86% of the 165,000 permitted entries were from France, Britain, Germany, and other Northern European countries.

The Act set no limits on immigration from Latin America.

The quotas remained in place with minor alterations until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I dunno - my immediate reaction here (which appears to be what the journalist is after) is that it does seem a little tasteless, but I wouldn't go so far as to condemn it out of hand without first having seen the play.

The Anne Frank story is powerful (and important) because it attaches some sense of human sentimentality to the millions of people who died. That IMO has more of an impact than a list of names and numbers. Whether it rings true or not I suppose - depends on what extent the musical can actually evoke the same (or similar) emotional response to the book. Still I'd imagine most people who see the play would have actually read the book.