After watching the brilliant Israeli rock opera ‘War’ on stage, and blogging about it, I have been corresponding by email with musician Kobi Vitman who created it based on his experiences in 2002 as a reserve infantry soldier during Operation Defensive Shield, and the PTSD that followed. A couple of months ago, when the original cast recording was issued, I tried to convey to Vitman my own experiences as a listener and a fan of the genre, emphasizing the difficulty in trying to track down these musical gems once the curtain closes on the original show. In accordance with my beliefs about file sharing, copyright laws and my own experiences searching for recordings of Israeli musicals, I tried to push for making the entire album available online.
Well, I am so very happy to announce that as of this week, the album is indeed available online and for free. You can still purchase the physical CD, booklet and all, for 40NIS, but if you just want the MP3 files, they are now legally available on WarRockOpera.com. You can still watch the show live in its acoustic version. Check the website for details.
Now that the reviews are out, I am much more comfortable mentioning the local production of the musical Rent: The Jerusalem community center Merkaz Hamagshimim Hadassah has gathered a diverse cast of actors, made up of religious and secular people, new immigrants, foreign students and native Israelis, to perform the Israeli premiere of Jonathan Larson’s Broadway hit which ran for 12 years. I think it would be very interesting to see how the local production touches on the edgy subjects raised by this musical, especially in a city as political as Jerusalem.
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Director: Rafi Poch
Musical director: Sara Halevi
Conductor: Jeff Rosenschein
Choreography: Marvin Casey
Acting Coach: Kate Nachman Brody
Location: Industrial lot rooftop of El Halev / Merkaz Edna, Pierre Koenig Street, opposite Kanyon Hadar, Talpiyot, Jerusalem
Dates: June 11, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24, 25
Time: 8pm
Tickets: 80 NIS (student discounts available)
Phone: 052-603-9197
Title:The Beautiful Game. Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber Lyrics: Ben Elton What’s it about: Teenagers playing soccer in Northern Ireland. What’s it really about: An original love story amidst religious intolerance in 1969’s Belfast.
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The Beautiful Game – Lyrics
Company:
Measure your life in football seasons
Feel the passion and feel the heat.
Football is the only reason
God almighty gave us feet.
Goal!
Buy the ref a flipping guide dog!
D’you call that a bleeding pass?
Kick it out mate! What a ball hog!
Dozy wanker shift your arse!
Two nil!
You stupid plonker.
We’re going to conquer.
Come and have a go.
Have some of that.
You think you’re hard but we know you’re crap.
Let’s have another.
Just like the other.
COME ON!
Viva. The Beautiful Game.
Raise your voice for the people’s sport.
Long live the bountiful game.
Those who play. Those who support.
Sick as a parrot.
Over the Moon.
Score!
A couple more for
A wonderful game.
A magical game.
Thank God for football.
Girls:
They’re our lads and we support ‘em.
Come on then stick one in this time.
Company:
It isn’t a religion it’s more important.
Sacred holy and divine.
Three nil!
Nice one United
We’re all delighted.
Girls:
No joy tonight, forget it again,
My boyfriend’s in love with eleven men.
Company:
All sing together,
Comrades forever.
Up yours!
Viva. The Beautiful Game.
It’s what Saturdays are for.
Ooh ah. The triumph and pain.
Work to live but live to score
We’re on our way now
To Wemberly.
Up
For the cup it’s
The classical game
The marvellous game.
Thank God for football.
It’s an obsession the reason we’re here,
‘cos it’s better than sex and it’s better than beer so
Viva! The emerald team!
Mother Mary’s Irish sons.
Viva! The boys in green!
Shout for Ireland’s youngest guns
Green is the colour
Soccer the game.
Score!
A thousand more for
The Boys in Green.
The Emerald team;
Playing for Ireland, playing for Ireland!
GOAL!
A Haters Guide to Musical Theatre is a series of easily digestible songs from musicals I love. Hopefully this will aid people in giving this genre a try. This guide will not include shows like The Phantom of the Opera or Les Misérables, as I consider these hardcore, nor shows like The Lion King or Mamma Mia which I don’t even count as musicals.
Israelis love their armchair activism. As long as they don’t have to do anything more than click their mouse, they are willing to show their support. This is particularly evident in the sheer number of people willing to join a so-called online protest, in comparison to how few are willing to put on their coat and walk to the city center for an actual real-world protest.
Armchair activism has a particularly disgusting side as it brings out the trigger happiness in people. In light of recent events, dozens of hawkish Facebook groups were created by Israelis, advocating the annihilation of the Gaza strip. All you have to do is click the ‘Join’ button, and you have instantly shown your degree of ‘patriotism’. Here is a selection of those Facebook groups:
In this atmosphere of collective zeal, I think nothing can be more patriotic than watching War, A Rock Opera this coming Wednesday in Tel-Aviv. The show was created by Israeli musician Kobi Vitman based on his ordeals as an IDF reserve infantry soldier during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, but it was painfully relevant to the 2006 Lebanon War -- and even more so now, as the conflict in Gaza escalates into a ground invasion. The collective Israeli memory is notoriously short, and so watching this show is an excellent reminder of what war is really like in a country where every citizen is a soldier.
