Cantorial • IraLevin.org

Cantorial

1988

COMEDY/DRAMA

“I think it's probably the warmest thing I've ever written.” —Levin (1989)

A year after its initial 1988 run at New York's Jewish Repertory Theatre, Cantorial transferred to off-Broadway's Lamb's Theatre. Cantorial is that rare mix of theatrical genres – part comedy, part drama, part supernatural suspense fable, and part musical – as a young man searches for his true identity, after discovering that the small synagogue-turned-condo he and his partner just bought is haunted by the ghost of its former cantorial singer – who will sing only to him.

“I got the idea many years ago. Then one night, about eight years ago, it suddenly dawned on me that if a synagogue is haunted, it should be haunted by a cantor, whose singing could be very exciting in a theater. So that made it a play instead of a book.”
—Levin (New York Times, 1989)

"It's a Compelling Ghost, And It Sings in Hebrew" (New York Times, 1989)

The show's powerful (and at times spooky!) cantorial singing was provided by noted cantor Paul Zim