Yentl

"This has to be a musical!" Marilyn and Alan Bergman exclaimed in unison to Barbra Streisand when she showed the songwriters the script for Yentl. This project, developed from Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentl (1983), the Yeshiva Boy, had been dear to Streisand's heart since she first optioned the story in 1968. It tells of a young Jewish woman in Poland who, after the loss of her father, disguises herself as a boy so she can go to a Yeshiva (Jewish school for priests) and study the Torah. Streisand, who ended up directing, co-producing and co-writing the film as well as starring in it, had planned it as an intimate, non-musical drama until the Bergmans persuaded her to add songs. As quoted by Streisand biographer James Spada, Marilyn Bergman explained, "We felt it was a wonderful story for a musical, because it is [about] a character with a secret. Throughout the picture, after her father dies, there is nobody to whom she can talk, to whom she can reveal her essential self. And this rich inner life becomes the [song] score." Because they felt the music should be lushly romantic and rooted in the European tradition, the Bergmans considered Michel Legrand the perfect composer to collaborate on the Yentl score. "The kind of music Michel writes is timeless. It could be the 18th, 19th or 20th century," said Alan. Added Marilyn: "The challenge was to make the music exotic and colorful, but not so special that it doesn't have universality." In developing ... more