Review: The Event really was big

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of March 6, 2009 / 10 Adar 5769

The people who tried and failed to ruin the Lipa Schmeltzer concert billed as “The Event” weren’t missed at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night — but they missed some show.

Producer Sheya Mendlowitz orchestrated a nearly seamless blend of live performance, clever video clips, and surprise guests — including Mordechai Ben David and Far Rockaway’s own Rabbi Boruch Chait — plus multiple costume changes — all presented without benefit of a live master of ceremonies, usually an omission that invites disaster, at least in my opinion, but certainly not in this case. (Note to concert promoters: if your name isn’t Sheya Mendlowitz you probably can’t pull that off; get an M.C).

The Event was billed as a tribute to the late Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum a”h and it was a nice one. Among his many accomplishments Rabbi Teitelbaum produced the very successful Pirchei Boys Choir albums of the 1960s, and the show opened with the “new” Pirchei choir (actually the Yeshiva Boys Choir enthusiastically led by Yossi Newman) reintroducing Pirchei classics — as Pirchei songs — to a new generation: “Eilecho,” “Pischu Li,” “Ura Kevodi,” “Tzion Tzion,” “Ani Ma’amin,” “Toras Hashem Temimah,” which is familiar to many as a Simchat Torah standby, and a few more.

In dark pants and white shirts, the choir looked like the spitting image of what you’d imagine a Pirchei choir might look like. A man sitting next to me with binoculars turned out to be Jay Dolitsky of Cedarhurst, the father of a choir member — Jack Dolitsky, 9, of HAFTR.

“So I assume he doesn’t usually wear his tzitzis out,” I asked. “No, but you can be taught anything,” he noted with a smile.

I never saw Rabbi Teitelbaum’s Pirchei Choir perform but I’m guessing they never fronted a 22-piece orchestra.

Lipa Schmeltzer made his entrance on the WaMu Theater stage a year later than planned, but it was worth the wait.

He appeared in a spotlight from behind the orchestra riser at the top of a flight of stairs at center stage. He sang the title track of his last album, “A Poshiter Yid,” (a simple Jew), into the type of headset microphone common on secular performers but not generally seen in Jewish music (perhaps because few other Jewish singers would know what to do with two free hands, someone observed).

He wore a cloth cap and a black velvet blazer — the first of at least a half dozen costumes he would wear through the course of the evening. Twice I looked up from taking notes and realized that I had missed a costume change.

Immediately after the first song an assistant entered from stage left with a large briefcase so Lipa could exchange his glasses for a different pair.

Next was a well-produced video prepared for last year’s concert. Set in an operating room, it turned out to be a commercial for an ink and toner company. Surgeons finishing an operation have trouble bringing the patient out from under anesthesia. “Let me see the EKG printout,” the lead surgeon orders. When the anesthesiologist tells him the printer on the electrocardiograph was out of ink, the surgeon reacts with  anger, and the video cuts to a slide with the advertiser’s name and other information.

Then, from behind the surgical drape, the “patient” sits up smiling: Lipa.

Cut back to live action with Lipa striding onstage — this time in full Chassidishe levush (traditional Hasidic attire). Before singing another note Lipa turned the whole evening into a siyum (completion of study) — his first ever — on Masechet (tractate) Megillah, complete with everyone in the theater rising for Kaddish.

Then he sang an ode to Torah study, a song from his last album with the chorus, “Torah sheh’bichsav (the written Torah), Torah she’ ba’al p’eh (the oral Torah).

A guest appearance by Dedi was introduced with another video — a funny skit about Lipa and Dedi in the IDF; the choir sang several more Pirchei songs; and Rabbi Boruch Chait performed with Yisroel Williger and members of the group ‘Acheinu.’

Rabbi Chait took a moment to recall  the joy that Rabbi Teitelbaum took in living life — “his simchas hachaim” — and in partaking of the permitted,  rather than seeking to ban.

A video tribute to Rabbi Teitelbaum was hosted by a young grandson; another tribute was also pre-recorded by composer Abie Rottenberg, who had a family obligation that didn’t let him attend in person.

That turned out to be the most technically interesting part of the show — a virtual performance by Rottenberg, singing and playing piano, soon joined by a virtual Mordechai Ben David, who sat next to him on the piano bench, accompanied  by the live orchestra onstage, by the choir, Acheinu, Sruli Williger and, finally, Lipa.

Next, Lipa was back on stage by himself, at least for a while. He seemed to dismiss his critics and the controversy that has surrounded him for more than a year, while discussing his frequent visits to the sick.

“When I go to a hospital to lift them up it breaks my heart,” he said. “Not the other stuff — the other stuff is nonsense. THIS breaks my heart.”

He sang a medley of songs from past albums, explaining that he would try to make everyone happy by singing their favorite song — and was soon wearing his most interesting costume yet, which seemed to incorporate the traditional garb of four or five different groups of Chassidim: pants with one dark leg, one light, with a white sock on one foot, and a long coat that seemed to be several garments stitched together.

Possibly the best part of the show came when Lipa, now in  brown slacks and long coat with a matching bowler hat, sang Mordechai Ben David’s “Just One Shabbos,” in Yiddish, after poking fun at himself and his Yiddish-inflected speech with a promise to also “try it in Yinglish.” He didn’t have to make the attempt: Mordechai Ben David, in the flesh, this time, joined him halfway through to sing the chorus and the rest of the song. The crowd gave a huge roar as MBD made the same grand entrance from the top of the orchestra riser that Lipa had made earlier. Hundreds leaped (Lip’d?) to their feet.

With tastes running more toward classic rock, my seatmate, Jay Dolitsky, has been to very few Jewish music concerts, he said. He had heard of MBD but didn’t recognize him when he appeared. Still, he quickly figured out what was what.

“I can see why he’s so well liked,” he said. “He just has a very palatable voice. He’s got great presence. I get the impression that Lipa is more of an entertainer” than purely a singer.

Got it in one.

Seeing the two of them together on stage was a lot of fun — all the more so because it was Lipa’s show, and for all of Mordechai’s stage presence, it remained Lipa’s show. Maybe it was the headset mic that did it.

MBD sang past favorites including “Ki Lo Yitosh,” “Da’aga Minayin,” “Anachnu Ma’aminim” and “Yidden.”

Lipa changed costumes again toward the end, this time into a large pair of black-striped tzitzis worn outside his shirt. His dancers (did I mention there were male dancers, as well as a trio of backup singers, who also changed costumes several times) — soon followed suit, wearing tzitzis over their ... track suits, while Lipa soon switched up again into a grey bekeshe (long coat). In most, if not all of the costume changes, he also switched his glasses.

Toward the end, Lipa told the cheering crowd, “We will do this again and again and again. We will bring simcha!” Which is really what he’s all about.

As someone who has found himself bored to distraction at more than one Jewish music concert in the last 10 years I will tell you that this show wasn’t one of them, and I’m looking forward to what Lipa and Sheya Mendlowitz will follow up with for next year.