Jewish Chronicle 15.03.02
I Can get it For You Wholesale, Arcola Theatre
Riches from rags
Carole Woddis on the revival of a classic Jewish
musical
How strange that it takes a Turkish Muslim
director to revive one of the few quintessentially Jewish
musicals not to have been "rediscovered" in the
past 20 years. The 1962 Harold Rome hit, I Can Get It for
You Wholesale, propelled Barbra Streisand (as the beleaguered
secretary, Miss Marmalstein) to prominence when it first
hit the stage 40 years ago.
Since then, it had been neglected until
the remarkable Mehmet Ergen brought it to his Arcola Theatre,
formerly a derelict clothes factory in London's East End.
Now, the one-time factory floor teems once again with finished
and unfinished garments, sewing machines and rows of buttons
and beads.
Rome's musical, set in the dismal get-rich-quick-and-at-any-price
days of the American Depression, and based on the novel
by Jerome Weidman, is the tale of thrusting young rag trade
entrepreneur, Harry Bogen (Joseph Wicks). He throws caution
and principles to the wind to make his pile, goes bankrupt
but lives to fight another day. Hugely entertaining, if
a touch sentimental, and played with panache, this production
shows once again what can be achieved on a shoestring. Somebody
should run with this all the way to the West End.
Carole Woddis
