L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
Hadassah Event to Preview Musical ‘Bordello’
T H EATER
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
PLAYWRIGHT AND lyricist
Barbara Bellman was trans-
lating poetry for her master’s
degree in fi ne arts at American
University when she stumbled
across the story of Raquel
Liberman, a 20th-century Polish
Jewish immigrant who fl ed to
Argentina to start a new life for
her family and turned to prosti-
tution aft er her husband’s death.

Bellman, a Philadelphia
native, was translating the
works of Ukrainian screenwriter
César Tiempo, who published
a handful of poems under
a persona of a young woman
who was a victim of human
traffi cking by the Zwi Migdal,
a Polish white-slavery network.

By writing the poems,
Tiempo wanted, in part, to
expose the Zwi Migdal and to
share the stories of the exploited
women, Liberman included.

Liberman went on to testify
against the network in court and
is partially responsible for the
group dismantling.

Bellman was fascinated with
her story. Similarly to Tiempo,
she wanted to tell the story of the
endurance of a Jewish woman
who, against all odds, triumphed
over her oppressors.

“It’s not so much that I found
it, but it found me, and it hasn’t
let go,” Bellman said.

Bellman’s upcoming
musical “Bordello” is inspired
by Liberman’s story, and the
Emiliano Messiez is “Bordello”’s composer and arranger.

Courtesy of Sharla Feldscher
Doña Grazia Hadassah chapter
will preview it on Oct. 3 at 11
a.m. at the Union League of
Philadelphia. Th e Hadassah fundraising
event will feature six musicians,
six singers and 10 songs from the
musical, performed in front of a
300-person audience.

“Th is musical is such a
powerful story that the hundreds
of people that are going to be at
the Union League, hopefully,
will walk away not only enter-
tained but proud of the history
of the Jewish community,” said
Elaine Grobman, a Doña Grazia
Hadassah member and event
co-organizer. Th e “Bordello” preview event
is not only an opportunity to
raise funds for the Hadassah
chapter but to recruit and invite
new members.

“We’re also celebrating the
fact that we are in-person once
again,” said Bonnie Freundlich,
the chapter’s founding president,
who co-organized the event with
Grobman and former chapter
president Lisa Eizen.

“Bordello” has been a decade
in the making, conceived in
2011 as Bellman’s master’s thesis
project. Alongside
Argentine composer
and arranger
Emiliano Messiez, Bellman
composed “Bordello” with its
Argentinian setting in mind,
combining tango choreography
and music with the Ashkenazi
klezmer roots of Liberman and
her family, likewise blending
Messiez’s knowledge of Latin
American music with her own
musical theater background.

“It has been a dream collab-
oration,” Bellman said. “It was
meant to be.”
Aft er earning her MFA in
creative writing and completing
the New York University
graduate musical theatre writing
program, Bellman traveled to
Buenos Aires, where “Bordello”
takes place, hiring a journalist
to accompany her to Argentina’s
national archives to learn
more about Liberman and a
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SEPTEMBER 30, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
From left: Elaine Grobman, Bonnie Freundlich and Barbara Bellman
Photo by Dan Johnson
translator to help read through
the documents she found there.

She also met with Tiempo’s son,
who wrote Tiempo’s biography.

“Bordello” is not yet complete,
though it is fully written and
composed. Aft er the Hadassah
event, Bellman and Messiez
will continue to workshop the
musical, conducting table reads
and tryouts before doing a fi rst-
class production of the show in
London before its U.S. debut.

Bellman and Messiez — with
the support of producer David
Treatment — hope to one day
develop the show for Broadway.

In the meantime, Bellman is
happy to share “Bordello” with
the Greater Philadelphia Jewish
community, saying that the
musical tackles a timely topic
of human traffi cking that is still
ongoing. She hopes people will
walk away with a deeper under-
standing of the diffi cult choices
women have to make when
placed in diffi cult circumstances.

Freundlich agrees and
believes that sharing the story of
Liberman with a larger audience
is consistent with Hadassah’s
tradition of embracing “brave
Jewish women who stick their
heads above the fray and try to
make a diff erence.”
Grobman, who has known
Bellman for more than 12 years,
believes that it’s the perfect time
to share Bellman’s musical and
the story of Liberman with the
Hadassah community, rekin-
dling connections aft er more
than 18 months apart.

“Th e message is: We will
survive, whether it’s a pandemic,
whether it’s persecution,”
Grobman said. “We are strong;
we are Jews; we are women,
and we continue to make a
diff erence.”
In addition to performances
from “Bordello,” the event
includes brunch and oppor-
tunities to participate in an
auction. Tickets are $100 for
nonmembers and $85 for
members and are available at
bit.ly/3iUqcM6. The Union
League requires all staff and
attendees to be vaccinated.

Guests are required to show
proof of vaccination upon
entry. ●
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
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L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
Adam Sandler Film Piques Area Interest
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ADAM SANDLER’S 2019 fi lm
with the Safdie Brothers “Uncut
Gems” featured a Passover scene
with antics that made even the
most secular of Jews cringe.

But forever loyal to the artist
behind “Th e Chanukah Song,”
area Jews have their interests
piqued about a new Sandler
fi lm, especially one fi lmed in
the City of Brotherly Love.

Sandler was spotted in
Center City Philadelphia, South
Philadelphia and Jenkintown
the week of Sept. 20 shooting
“Hustle,” the fi rst major motion
picture fi lmed in the city since
the pandemic began.

Th ough fi lming for the
Netfl ix-backed movie began
in October 2020, Sandler
returned to Philadelphia in
late August and has since
frequented Handel’s Ice Cream
in Berwyn, Dan Dan Wayne,
Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar and
Pat’s King of Steaks in South
Philadelphia, among others.

Sandler also bought two
guitars from DiPinto Guitars
designed by owner Christ DiPinto
who delivered the instruments to
Sandler (and Sandler’s dog Bagel)
earlier this month.

“Honestly I didn’t even realize
how famous Adam Sandler was
... until I posted a picture [on
Instagram], and it just went
insanely crazy,” DiPinto said.

Sandler bought a DiPinto
guitar for a recording session
last time he was in Philadelphia
in October 2020.

“He’s super nice, super cool
and a great guitarist, too,”
DiPinto said.

Anthony Capozzoli, son
of Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar
owner Lou Capozzoli, rubbed
shoulders with Sandler as
an extra in two of the fi lm’s
scenes, one of which was shot
in the South Philadelphia bar.

Capozzoli plays a bartender
at Ray’s in the scene, which was
transformed into a 76ers bar,
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Adam Sandler has bought three DiPinto guitars from the local business
since ‘Hustle’ began fi lming in the city in October 2020.

Courtesy of DiPinto Guitars
complete with everyone on set
donning jerseys. In the fi lm,
a Sixers game will be played
on the bar’s television screens,
which, during fi lming, were
fully green.

To fi lm the scene, Capozzoli
woke up at 5 a.m., arrived on
set at 8:30 a.m. and waited
until 4:30 a.m. the next day to
fi lm his scene.

When 2 a.m. rolled around,
some of the well-known cast
members started a dance
party. Sandler joined in and
welcomed in the extras as well.

“We were all around this
rich crowd of people having a
great time, and he was a part
of it,” Capozzoli said. “He was
mixed in with all the extras,
just having a great time.”
While on set, Sandler and
the fi lm crew treated the extras
with the same respect as the
big-time actors, Capozzoli said.

In another scene, shot at a
playground in Manor College
in Jenkintown, Capozzoli was
a camp counselor watching
a group of young campers
observing a basketball scrim-
mage. Th e one scene took four
days to shoot.

In between takes, Capozzoli
said Sandler would talk to the
kids, keeping energy levels
high during the long days.

“He would come over to
make small talk,” Capozzoli
said. “He said, ‘Hey guys, I’m
a basketball fan as well. I love
your Sixers, but I’m more of a
Knicks fan.’”
Other area businesses were
happy to welcome Sandler.

In order to accommo-
date Sandler’s pork-free diet,
Dan Dan Wayne owners Cat
and Kevin Huang designed a
chicken-fi lled soup dumpling
— dubbed Sandler’s wonton —
and added it to the menu aft er
his visit on Aug. 30.

“Hustle” stars Sandler as
Stanley Beren, a past-prime
basketball scout who discovers
Spanish talent Bo Cruz outside
of Madrid and hopes to mold
him into a basketball superstar.

Queen Latifah and Robert Duvall
will star alongside Sandler.

Several players from the Sixers
are expected to make cameos.

Th ough no one can guarantee
Sandler’s new fi lm will have the
same Jewish overtones as “Uncut
Gems,” with Jewish fi lmmaker
Jeremiah Zagar, director of the
2018 fi lm “We the Animals”
and son of Philadelphia Magic
Garden artist Isaiah Zager, at
the helm of “Hustle,” Jews can
still have hope for some good
Jewish representation.

With the fi lm shooting in
Center City shortly aft er the
High Holidays, maybe we can
bet on a Sukkot scene. ●
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
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