Mar 27,2008
The New Jersey Jewish News reports on a new musical comedy that looks at life in the annex from the perspective of Anne Frank’s little sister. (What’s next — “Long Night,” a comic romp on Auschwitz from the perspective of an inmate having to listen to Elie Wiesel moralize all the time?):
What if Margot, Anne Frank’s big sister, also kept a diary? What if hers offered a different perspective on life in the annex?
What if her diary revealed different truths — that it was she and Peter who were in love, not Anne and Peter, or that Albert Dussel, really Dr. Fritz Pfeffer, was actually a lovely fellow and not the fat, bald, selfish man as portrayed in Anne’s diary?
And what if Anne were actually, in Margot’s words, “a conniving little [rhymes with witch]”?
Most of all, what if someone wrote a play based on the premise and turned it into a musical comedy?
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8 Responses for "The other Frank girl"
The whole idea is disgusting for many reasons, including that anyone who has ever read the famous diary knows that Margot was older, not younger, than Anne. The proximate cause for the family to go into hiding was that Margot was called up for obligatory work service (i.e., deportation to a work camp) — Anne was not yet old enough for this program.
Also, none of this is at all new. Anne herself talks in the diary about the unfairness of her ending up with Peter, not Margot, and how she and Margot discussed it. There is plenty of evidence, especially in the excellent book by Miep Gies, one of the righteous gentiles who helped the Frank family, that Dr. Pfeffer was a witty, cultured man, who was well-liked by adults and had a beautiful and devoted non-Jewish girlfriend who has been trying to rehabilitate his reputation ever since the Diary was first published. And there is also plenty of evidence, through Miep Gies and others that, while Anne was a vibrant personality, many people found her hard to take, especially her mother and her sister.
I suppose there are enough fools out there who enjoyed the TV show ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ or the movie ‘Life is Beautiful’ for garbage like this to be successful, but I, for one, will certainly NOT be among the spectators.
I liked hogans heroes, especially the part of col. klink played by rudy giulani.
How ’bout a musical comedy of the converts to chriatianity that run the major jewish orgs and newspapers into the ground and are trying to get american jews to assimiliate
Insanity! Insanity!
It’s the sign of the times in which decency, intelligence and awareness are in an extremely short supply.
What do you expect from a culture where sexual exitation is the usual form of entertainment and ignorance is celebrated.
Let us hope that this “theatrical event” is a manifestation of that old saw: “It’s always darkest before dawn.”
talk about giving credence to the cliche of whiny, self-loathing, persecution-complex jews. you all sound like my grandmother’s bridge group: paranoid, delusional, but mostly - old. any of you people know what “l’shan horah” means? have a sense of humor, and get a grip. kvetches.
I think that there is enough evidence that Anne’s diary is one young woman’s view of life as it appeared to her in the most difficult of circumstances. Let us all rejoice in the beauty of her life and writing. To put a supposition of a story that has no factual evidence into a musical is ludicous.
A very positive review from the university…
Perhaps one should SEE a show before they dismiss it as garbage.
“Margot Frank: The Diary of the Other Young Girl”
CHRIS NESI
Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: News
PrintEmail Article Tools Page 1 of 1 It was nearly impossible to avoid seeing posters all over campus for this year’s winner of the New Jersey Playwrights Contest, “Margot Frank: The Diary of the Other Young Girl.” When I first noticed the posters, and the prominent words, “a new musical comedy,” I thought this couldn’t possibly be a parody of Anne Frank. I was wrong.
It was actually a fairly brilliant and completely original take on the famous story of the Frank sisters hiding out from the Nazis in an apartment in Amsterdam with the Van Pels family. The show began with a high school drama class bickering over the casting for the play within the play, which was to be the traditional theatrical version of The Diary of Anne Frank. High school student Min-go, the cast’s lone Asian performer questioned the logic of allowing Jewish students to portray Nazis, and in her words, a flaming homosexual to play the lead romantic interest, but not allowing her, a Chinese-American to play the title role. The students and teacher hilariously thwart her efforts, and soon grow tired of her grandstanding. This is where the play took a turn for the seriously odd: A sandbag falls on Min-go from above, and she falls unconscious to the floor, setting the stage for a totally bizarre play to take place in Min-go’s unconscious state.
This was a true group cast effort. Each performer dutifully rearranged the set before, after, and even during action on stage, moving around furniture and placing props where they belong without drawing excessive focus from the characters speaking. There was a lot of physical comedy in the performance, people were falling out of chairs, and Peter Van Pels was repeatedly beaten with a fish. This unique performance was laugh out loud funny at times. The usually contemplative, sensitive Anne Frank that we know from her diary has been replaced by a snotty, petulant brat, portrayed frighteningly realistically by Hilary Goldman.
When I said the play was weird, I meant just that. At one point, the Marx Brothers, Barbara Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Moses, and Jesus Christ himself were all literally on the stage dancing and singing about their respective rank among the most famous Jews of all time. According to the play, Jesus was number one, Anne Frank was number two.
All weirdness and borderline psychedelic imagery aside, the play’s central theme was shining the spotlight on the lesser noticed people among us. Margot Frank represented the girl living in the shadow of her one day legendary sister Anne. According to the play, Margot was actually the one who kept that brilliant diary during the war. Anne plagiarized Margot’s diary word for word, and claimed it as her own, thereby relegating Margot to her mostly forgotten place in history.
I had a wonderful time at Margot Frank. The writers of the play and the music, Lori Mooney and Diana Rissetto should be praised for their daring, and irreverent take on a very somber subject. It is not easy to walk that thin line between shocking humor and offensiveness, but both Mooney and Rissetto did so deftly, and with unflinching courage.
I agree with Chris. I’m reading all of this vitriolic spewing while asking myself “who among these individuals posting knows anything about this creative effort?”
The judges of the NJ Young Playwrights competition felt that it was a play worth recognizing.
I say shame on those of you who are judging blindly.
AND…here’s another interesting development.
MySpace recently deleted the account with the page promoting the play.
Anyone who supports freedom of the arts and would like to appeal the censorship by MySpace (…one can only speculate WHY the page was removed, but after reading comments here, I wouldn’t be surprised that similar communications were directed at MySpace).
I urge people to contact MySpace customer service. Link is at the bottom of their home page.
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