A Tip of the Tiara to Queen of Yiddish Stage

COSTA MESA —  Molly Picon may not be well-known outside the Jewish community, but within it, especially among older folks, she’s an entertainment icon.

Known as “the female Charlie Chaplin” during a stage career that lasted more than eight decades, Picon was a mainstay on the New York vaudeville circuit and became the queen of Yiddish theater.

“I talk to people [who aren’t Jewish] and the name may ring a bell, but that’s about it,” said Jon Garon, artistic director of the Jewish Community Center of Orange County’s Menorah Theatre in Costa Mesa. “But Jews light up when she’s mentioned. Molly is very loved out there.”

To lionize Picon and introduce her to those who know little about her or the Yiddish theater, Garon will bring Sarah Blacher Cohen’s musical about her life, “Molly Picon’s Return Engagement,” to the Menorah Theatre tonight and Sunday afternoon. It’s the Orange County premiere for the show, which has been on tour around the country.

“This goes right to the heart of what we’re trying to do,” Garon said. “We [at the Menorah Theatre] want to develop contemporary Jewish work but also reinvigorate or reinterpret the traditions of Yiddish theater and culture.”

The musical follows Picon and her playwright-producer husband, Jacob Kalich, through their life together, with the stage as a backdrop. Garon said Molly is shown as a young woman, then as a veteran who often performs along side her husband and, finally, as an elderly widow returning to the theater.

Along the way, traditional songs that Picon popularized--such as “Yiddel Mitn Fiddle” and “Abi Gezunt”--are offered. Other musical numbers from more mainstream shows (“Milk and Honey” and “Fiddler on the Roof”) that Picon appeared in on Broadway also will be performed by the cast of Renee Matthews and Jerry Preskill, both from Chicago.

Picon, who died in 1992 at the age of 93, spent nearly her whole life in and around show business. In 1904, Picon got her start as a 6-year-old actress in the local Yiddish repertory in Pennsylvania.

Her precociousness turned her into a mainstay in traveling song-and-dance revues, in which she performed Yiddish tunes and vaudeville routines.

After meeting Kalich in 1919, her career headed in a more prestigious direction. She became a regular at the Second Avenue Theatre in New York, toured the world and made her 1941 Broadway debut in “Morning Star.”

Garon said her popularity in the Yiddish world was matched by that among famous entertainers.

“She was a great combination of feistiness, fun and sheer talent,” he said. “Everyone who saw her could see that. To give you an idea of her flair, there’s a story about when she met Helen Hayes.”

Picon and Hayes were frequently compared, Garon said, because of their acting abilities and small size.

“When they met, Hayes said something like, ‘You know, they sometimes describe me as the Gentile Molly Picon,’ ” Garon said, “And Picon replied, ‘That’s OK, they sometimes call me the Jewish Helen Hayes.’ ”

Garon added that Picon was most proud of her postwar performances, when she and her husband visited and played in refugee camps for Jews and other survivors. The musical touches on that time in her life, which Garon thinks is valuable to an audience.

“It’s important because it’s a reminder of the Holocaust and also it shows how Yiddish theater became changed because of the Holocaust,” he said. “It had been insular before but became more international after that.

“Jews realized that the old defense mechanism that ‘If they don’t know us than they can’t harm us’ didn’t work any longer. They couldn’t be self-protective and isolated; they had to reach out.”

* Sarah Blacher Cohen’s “Molly Picon’s Return Engagement” plays tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Orange County’s Menorah Theatre, 250 E. Baker St., Costa Mesa. $12.50 and $15. (714) 755-0340.