A Lucky Man Shares His Laughter

Before he was a Yiddish star, Leo Fuchs was a Polish star.

“My parents were Yiddish actors,” said Fuchs, who arrives Saturday at Ambassador Auditorium in his one-man show “Laughter on Second Avenue”--for one night only. “My first part was in my father’s act when I was 5: I played a midget with a beard and a top hat named Moses.” Twenty years later, at the height of fame in Poland, the actor was invited to star in the musical “Lucky Boy” in New York’s Yiddish theater. “ ‘Lucky Boy’ was lucky,” he admitted. “It saved me from the Holocaust.”

In addition to his work in the Yiddish theater, Fuchs played Fagin in “Oliver,” Herr Schultz in “Cabaret” (at the Ahmanson and on Broadway) and “the skinniest Tevye ever” in “Fiddler on the Roof.” On Saturday, he’ll share memories of those roles, some song and dance, “and I talk about the evolution of Jewish comedy and illustrate my observations.” As for a self-portrait: “When I came here I was a young, handsome, charming devil. Now I’m only a devil--and maybe a little charming.”

“KING OF HEARTS AS PLAY: The National Theatre of the Deaf returns for its annual sojourn (at Pomona College Wednesday, at Pepperdine on Thursday, at the Wadsworth on Friday, at Cal State Long Beach on Saturday, at L. J. Williams Theatre in Visalia next Sunday) in “King of Hearts.”

“It’s the story of a French town that’s deserted because it’s about to be (bombed),” said artistic director David Hays. “The residents flee, and it’s occupied by patients of an asylum outside the town. A young Scottish soldier comes in and . . . it’s about what happens to him.

“There were three sources of development,” he added. “The (1967 Philippe de Broca) film, (director) J Ranelli and the text contributed by the company.” As for the piece’s appeal, “It’s something we could put together and make our own: Delightful, light, fantastic. Nobody else could have done it this way. I think signing enhances it; the combination of sign language and spoken voices gives another level to the meaning. It’s almost like you need two forms to express it.”

DOWNTOWN MUSICAL: The “pioneers” of Los Angeles’ downtown artistic community are celebrated in “Loft Maiden,” a new musical with book by Mark Kreisel and music by Elizabeth Balogh and Scott Hitchings. It opens Friday at the Open Air Theatre (next door to Al’s Bar).

“Before the (1980) artist-in-resident law, it was illegal to live in the lofts; you could only work there,” Kreisel noted of the warehouse district. “The premise is that artists are used by society to revitalize old neighborhoods--like Venice, old Pasadena.” The song titles include “Fashion and Passion,” a “MOCA, LACMA, LICA and LACE” nightmare chant, earthquake inspectors in “The Big One” and an ode to art critics in “Exposure.”

CRITICAL CROSS FIRE: A revival of “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller’s dramatization of the Salem witch hunts, opened recently at South Coast Repertory. Martin Benson directs.

Said Sylvie Drake in The Times: “(It is) one of the most absorbing and suspenseful productions witnessed to date on South Coast’s Mainstage. Benson has galvanized a company of South Coast stalwarts, augmented by a sprinkling of returning faces and some very strong new ones. . . . The physical presentation of this ‘Crucible’ is equally remarkable.”

Drama-Logue’s T. H. McCulloh noted: “There may have been productions of ‘The Crucible’ which have had more theatrical thunder, but none have ever illuminated the text as surely and lucidly as Benson’s direction has brought flashes of pure light to this production. He grabs the playwright’s statement by the tail and does not let go for one moment.”

From Welton Jones in the San Diego Union: “Benson has devised a staging of brutal, stark grandeur in which a well-chosen cast performs with marvelous timing and sympathy amid a decor designed to evoke but not distract. . . . As John Proctor, the stalwart farmer who serves as Miller’s Everyman, James Sutorious is tough, honest and effective.”

The Orange County Register’s Thomas O’Connor wrote: “This ‘Crucible’ is only nominally about gritty, pioneer farmers who lose sight of the forest of common sense for the trees of their piety. Instead, the clash of individual and social moralities, the twisting of law to suit a darker purpose, plays out abstractly in broad, visually bold strokes.”