Washington Square News
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020
ARTS
ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM
5
Edited by KAYLEE DEFREITAS and ETHAN ZACK
‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ Pleads for a More Accepting World By SASHA COHEN Performing Arts Editor Seconds before the clock struck eight, panic filled the family room as my dad struggled to set up the live stream for what would be a revolutionary event: the Saturday Night Passover Seder. Due to COVID-19 and social distancing, Jewish individuals had no choice but to celebrate Passover, or Pesach, alone this year. Fortunately, the Saturday Night Passover Seder united Jews around the world for an hour filled with tradition and entertainment while raising money for the CDC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. From Tisch first-year Milo Manheim saying a hearty “Dayenu” and NYU alumna Debra Messing explaining the story of Passover to Idina Menzel singing “The Four Questions” and Andy Cohen’s Afikomen skit, the program not only spread joy in the Jewish community but illustrated the great solidarity and perseverance the population practices in the face of persistent anti-Semitism. Many of the performances were witty and insightful, yet nothing left me feeling quite as inspired as Ben Platt’s rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Born into immigrant Jewish families, Arlen’s and Harburg’s mutual heritage inspired them to write the beloved show tune that would later become the heart and soul of “The Wizard of Oz” score. When audiences hear this beautiful melody, they often picture Dorothy in her blue-checkered dress and ruby slippers, imagining the endless possibilities her future may hold. Yet, very few recognize how melancholy the song truly is when situated in a larger historical context. “The Wizard of Oz” premiered in 1939, a few months after Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass: when the
Nazis destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, schools, synagogues and sent 30,000 Jews to concentration camps, killing almost 100 people that night. Passover remembers the Jews’ suffering while enslaved in Egypt and celebrates the freedom their ancestors possess now. But Arlen and Harburg recognized that their people’s suffering was not in the past, rather something they persistently experienced before and after the Holocaust. Yet in the face of evil, the Jewish composers created “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to illustrate a future society free of hate and filled with acceptance. Platt’s singing during the live stream evoked the very bittersweet feeling the song requires. Shot in black in white, Platt’s performance began with a quiet but delightful mix of chest voice and falsetto. Once he finished the first verse, actress Judith Light discussed how the pogroms — riots that massacred the Jewish people — sent European Jews on an exodus, just like their enslaved ancestors in Egypt, to the land full of promise: the United States of America. Soon, the pictures of hopeful Jewish immigrants on ships to America that appeared on the screen were tarnished by the heartbreaking reality of the Jews’ struggle with Nazi Germany. Paralleling Jewish people’s agony and ongoing persecution, Platt’s singing appropriately switched from a wistful to almost pained and mournful tone to complement the sorrowful mood. Before the end of what seems like an entirely somber performance, Light describes Harburg’s belief that despite the constant anti-Semitism the Jewish people faced, they always found the strength to continue their fight for acceptance — not just for themselves — but for every oppressed individual on the planet. Immediately after she communicated this idea, the song intensified with a lush percussive melody as the music slowed to suspend
CHARLIE DODGE | WSN
The Saturday Night Passover Seder featuring Ben Platt among many other celebrities was a virtual event live-streamed from the Buzzfeed Tasty channel. This unconventional celebration united Jewish people worldwide while raising funds for the CDC Foundation’s Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund.
Platt’s explosive, emotionally charged top note, allowing his voice to flourish while the black and white screen transitioned to color. As the song finished, his singing returned to a hushed, soothing falsetto to match the final picture of optimistic Jewish immigrants looking at the Statue of Liberty. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish people left their home countries to escape religious persecution and immigrated to the United States due to its promising slogan: “the land of the free.” However, these immigrants would be very disappointed in how the country and its people treat minorities today. Xenophobia is thriving across the nation: Jewish Americans attacked during prayer, the KKK’s persistent violence towards African Americans and individuals blam-
ing Chinese Americans for spreading the coronavirus. When I see these events plastered on newspaper headlines, I cannot help but question if America has the right to boast acceptance when discrimination towards these groups continues to grow. These people’s ancestors immigrated to America believing that the country would protect their future generations, but it is heartbreaking to know that the country’s promise of peace and liberty has yet to be fulfilled. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” does not depict a faraway, fictional escape where rainbows shine and people dream, but rather paints a world without hate. While we live in a time plagued with what feels like endless violence and bigotry, the harmonious place Arlen and Harburg referenced is not as far as we may think.
Minorities have always found a way to persevere during times of adversity, yet neither they nor anyone will ever find freedom or the majestic heaven with blue skies if their small populations are the only ones fighting. Their cries are heard, but they will never transcend the thunderous roars of stereotypes, accusations and derogatory terms as long as they are fighting alone. So let’s all open our eyes and raise our voices. Raise our voices until our neighbors can hear us. Raise our voices until our community can hear us. Raise our voices until the whole world can hear us because then, and only then, will that somewhere over the rainbow become somewhere closer and real: our everyday lives. Email Sasha Cohen at scohen@nyunews.com.
Just Let Tigers Alone: ‘Tigertail’ Review By BEN LINDER Contributing Writer “Tigertail” might not be the feel-good movie you’re yearning for right now, but it is perhaps exactly what’s needed. Written and directed by Alan Yang (“Master of None” and “Little America”),The film is about immigration and all that’s sacrificed in the pursuit of a better life. It depicts Pin-Jui (Tzi Ma), a Taiwanese immigrant, as he reflects on his life before setting out to find economic prosperity in America to give his mother a better and safer life. But the journey to America forced him into an arranged marriage with his boss’ daughter, costing him the love of his youth and leaving him divorced with a distant son and an emotionally estranged daughter (Christine Ko). Flashbacks are spliced through the main storyline, implying shaky foundations. Many narratives that contain both a linearly progressing series of flashbacks and a linear storyline happening in the present are asking for trouble. But Yang uses this structure well by giving each timeline its due and letting them flow into each other purposefully, designing the alternating timelines to better illustrate the contrast between the past and present. The effect is a display of what it means to get the life you pay for. For example, the movie’s opening contains a scene with Tzi Ma’s character as a young boy on a farm in Taiwan, being told by his grandmother that he talks too much. As a child and a young man, it seems to
be all he’s told. Suddenly, the story jumps forward to him as an old man living in America, saying as little as possible with a stoic face that gives away nothing. It’s emblematic of the reserved performance that defines this somber film. The acting in “Tigertail” is incredible. The love between our young protagonist and his girlfriend in Taiwan is palpable. The silence between the hero in his old age and his daughter is heartbreaking, as are the scenes in which they finally come to say something to one another. It is certainly one of the film’s best qualities. In both the momentous and the quiet moments of Pin-Jui’s life, the world around him speaks volumes. Yang uses color beautifully both aesthetically and as a subtle communication device. He shows the brilliance of youth with shots of bright green fields in Taiwan as well as prosperity and happiness with deep reds in clothing and restaurants, contrasting it with whites and faded browns that mark the loneliness and dreariness of his life in America. “Tigertail” is a modern retelling of so many cautionary idioms and tales fashioned to include subjects of immigration and the pursuit of security. It’s a movie about the ensuing heartbreak of sacrificing love for financial stability and how the pain and suffering of that sacrifice can spread from generation to generation. JAKE CAPRIOTTI | WSN
Email Ben Linder at film@nyunews.com.
Alan Yang’s Netflix film “Tigertail” opens with a young boy running through a field. The film is based on the immigration story of Yang’s own parents.