INTERVIEW: Ari Axelrod celebrates Jewish Broadway composers
Photo: Ari Axelrod’s new album celebrates the contributions Jewish songwriters have made to Broadway. Photo courtesy of Michael Hull / Provided by Fortune Creative with permission.
A Place for Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway is the new album from Ari Axelrod, who joined forces with a 13-piece orchestra for the recording project. The album, which is available on CD and digitally from PS Classics, is based on his solo show and ultimately centers on the theme of hope, specifically the hope that composers found in the American theater and the unbelievable mountain of work that they contributed to the art form.
A Place for Us features selections from Fiddler on the Roof, Porgy & Bess, West Side Story and Once Upon a Mattress, among many others. Listeners will be able to enjoy standards like “Somewhere,” “Everybody Says Don’t,” “So in Love” and “Bring Him Home.” This celebration showcases the important role that Jewish songwriters played in developing the modern Broadway musical, according to press notes, and Axelrod stated that the music reminds him of community, home and refuge.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Axelrod about the recording of A Place for Us, which began as a concert at New York City’s Birdland. He has taken the show to several other venues, including most recently 54 Below in Midtown Manhattan. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How did you go about the song selection for A Place for Us album?
The album is a companion piece to the solo show I do of the same name. We started by looking at the songs in the solo show, both the current iteration and previous iterations. We then looked for the “cracks” in the setlist and tried to fill in what we needed: up-tempos, moments of levity and composers we felt were missing.
Did you try to encompass a range of songs — from heartbreaking to celebratory fun?
We focused less on the range we wanted to encompass and more on the composers and lyricists we wanted to feature. From there, we made sure to select material that covered the scope of the human experience as much as we could.
What can audience members expect at the concert version of the show?
They can expect to hear songs from the album and some songs that are not on the album. Additionally, they can expect to hear the history and context of how these songs came to be. There’s no speaking on the album, so we’re able to do more for the live show.
Do you feel lovers of Broadway receive a bit of an education on the breadth and diversity of Jewish composers featured on your album?
Absolutely. It gives Broadway lovers an opportunity to experience songs they’ve known for years through an entirely new lens. There’s so much more under the surface of the songs that comprise the Broadway catalog and the Great American Songbook, and highlighting the Jewish influence, both musically and culturally, on these songs allows for both education and a newfound appreciation for this material to take shape.
What’s it like to interpret songs by Richard Rodgers?
I’ve always loved Richard Rodgers’ melodies. There’s something so luscious and sweeping about the way he wrote music. It’s such an honor to get to interpret his melodies. I often say that, with a great song, the composer and lyricist did the majority of the work. My job is to get out of the way of the song and simply be a vessel for listeners to experience the song.
Are you generally a hopeful person? Do these songs give you hope?
I oscillate between being a realist and an optimist. In these incredibly difficult times, I’ve found myself losing my sense of hope. But, these songs and the legacy of these composers provide a source of light in this ever-darkening world. These songs and the legacy of the people who created them definitely make me feel more like a cockeyed optimist.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
A Place for Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway, a new album from Ari Axelrod, is now available on CD and digitally from PS Classics. Click here for more information.
