Shlemiel the First (musical)

Shlemiel the First
Music	Hankus Netsky Zalmen Mlotek (additional music)
Lyrics	Arnold Weinstein
Book	Robert Brustein David Gordon (edited by)
Basis	the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Productions	1994 Cambridge, MA other productions

Shlemiel the First is a musical adaptation of the "Chelm" stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer about the supposedly wise men of that legendary town, and a fool named "Shlemiel". It was conceived and adapted by Robert Brustein, with lyrics by Arnold Weinstein and music based on traditional klezmer music and Yiddish theater songs by Hankus Netsky of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Zalmen Mlotek, who wrote additional music and arrangements, and served as the musical director of the original production. Singer had written a non-musical theatrical adaptation of the stories which Brustein produced in 1974 when he was the artistic director of Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, and this served to provide the basic material for the musical.

The musical was originally co-produced in 1994 by Brustein's American Repertory Theatre  in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia, and was directed, choreographed and edited by David Gordon, who one critic referred to as the "auteur" of the production. Critic John Lahr, writing in The New Yorker about the show in its run at ART, said that Gordon's "fresh and elegant production ... filters a traditional tale through an avant-garde aesthetic" and has "an element of wonder. In fact, it dares the musical to go back to its beginnings and start again."

...
Wikipedia