Yiddish ‘Soul Doctor’ Will Return, Off Broadway

ARTSBEAT
By ALLAN KOZINN

Soul Doctor Eric Anderson in this musical about the life of Shlomo Carlebach, now at the Circle in the Square.

NEW YORK---“Soul Doctor,” the musical about the guitar-strumming, folksong-composing rabbi Shlomo Carlebach that had a brief Broadway run at Circle in the Square in 2013, will return in an off-Broadway production at the Actors Temple Theater. Previews begin on Nov. 25; the show opens on Dec. 13. Jeremy Chess is producing. Casting details for the production have not been announced. The show, which uses adaptations of Carlebach’s music and has a book by Daniel S. Wise and new lyrics by David Schechter, offers a sweeping overview of the rabbi’s life (he fled the Nazis as a teenager, moved to New York, started congregations in San Francisco and Israel and died in 1994), with particular attention to his long relationship with the jazz singer Nina Simone. A Yiddish production of “Soul Doctor” is running through June 29 at the Segal Centre in Montreal. [link]

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Theatre Review: ‘The Who & the What’ Examines Faith and Family

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Charles Isherwood

Heidi Armbruster and Aasif Mandvi as a married couple in “Disgraced,” in 2012

NEW YORK---Matters of faith and family, gender and culture are stirred together into a fiery-flavored stew in “The Who & the What,” the probing new play by Ayad Akhtar that opened on Monday at the Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center. Like Mr. Akhtar’s “Disgraced,” which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize and will be seen on Broadway this fall, this new work considers the itchy frictions that emerge when religious belief and contemporary life rub up against each other, as they do for the family at the center of the play, a Pakistani immigrant and his two grown daughters. [link]

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Television Review: ‘Dominion’ Brings a Battle of Angels to Syfy

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael Hayle

The angel battle begins in new teaser trailer for Syfy's Dominion series

BROADCASTING---“Dominion,” beginning Thursday night on Syfy, is a television series spun off from a movie. But we’re not talking about something like “The Avengers” or even, say, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The source in this case is the little-noticed 2010 film “Legion,” in which a motley crew of humans, holed up in a desert diner, fight off a crew of malevolent angels with the help of the archangel Michael, who takes our side for one reason or another. Maybe pity? Hey, it’s been a while. The TV show picks up the movie’s story 25 years later, when the angel-human wars have left the planet with a lot fewer humans. [link]

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A Christian Convert, on the Run in Afghanistan

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Azam Ahmed

A LONESOME PIETY A former Muslim prayed somewhere near Kabul, Afghanistan,
in hiding from relatives who want to kill him for forsaking Islam and converting to Christianity.

AFGHANISTAN---In a dank basement on the outskirts of Kabul, Josef read his worn blue Bible by the light of a propane lantern, as he had done for weeks since he fled from his family in Pakistan. The documents are the reason he is hiding for his life. On paper, Afghan law protects freedom of religion, but the reality here and in some other Muslim countries is that renouncing Islam is a capital offense. For Josef, 32, who asked to be identified only by his Christian name to protect his wife and young child, the path to Christianity was only one segment on a much longer journey, a year of wandering that took him through Turkey, Greece, Italy and Germany, seeking refuge from Afghanistan’s violence. [link]

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Gertrude Stein’s Legacy Lives On in Pop-Up Art Salons

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Marisa Meltzer

NEW YORK---On a Saturday afternoon in Chelsea, a group of a few dozen people milled around the International Print Center New York, drinking Champagne and making small talk about the show New Prints 2014/Winter. But this wasn’t a gallery opening, nor was it an artist’s talk. Rather it was a salon by Gertrude, a new company organizing events to discuss art. “If you do a high-level description of what the art world is, you have the commercial side of the art world, which is about selling art work, and then you have institutions on the other end of the spectrum, with education as the main goal,” said Kenneth Schlenker, 26, the founder of Gertrude. “What we want to offer is something in the middle that’s an educational experience and a social one,” said Mr. Schlenker.  [link]

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A Nonbeliever, Curating Religious Art at NYC's Morgan Museum

ALJAZEERA AMERICA
By Judith H. Dobrzynski

NEW YORK---Roger S. Wieck is glowing like a doting father, though the cause is a tiny painting that sits in a glass vitrine in the center of a gallery at the Morgan Library & Museum. Occupying the left-hand page of a 2.75-by-2-inch prayer book made for Queen Claude of France (1499–1524), the painting portrays the Holy Trinity. His fervor is understandable. The 500-year-old prayer book is the centerpiece of Wieck’s new exhibition, “Miracles in Miniature: The Art of the Master of Claude de France.” At a time when society is increasingly secularized, when adherence to religion, at least in an organized form, is waning, it’s Wieck’s job, as the Morgan’s curator of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, to wax enthusiastic about religious art.  So it comes as a surprise, perhaps, to discover that Wieck himself does not believe in God. Though raised Catholic, he says he “became a nonbeliever gradually when I was in my 20s.” [link]

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RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

The Old Masters, who worked through the Renaissance continue to inspire and fascinate us with their skill and faith, but most of all by the value placed on their work by their patrons. There is no other generation that better embodies the ideal of arts patronage—a time when both private collectors and institutions banded together to collect works that lifted-up religion, but also lifted-up the careers of artists. Francesco Botticini was one of those artists who created works for both, and one of his private devotional works realized $425,000 at auction this month when sold by the Indianapolis Episcopal Diocese. It's a genuine honor to showcase this sale as my NEWS OF WEEK.

In other religious art news from across the USA, and around the world:

• Buddhist Art of Week: Buddha's new home at Rhode Island School of Design [More News]
• Christian Art of Week: James Ensor's "Man of Sorrows" at The Getty Center" [More News]
• Hindu Art of Week: M.F. Husain's "Ganesha" at Victoria and Albert Museum [More News]
• Islamic Art of Week: Samra Habib's online exhibition celebrates queer Muslims [More News]
• Judaic Art Week: Artist salons to explore Judaism are spreading worldwide [More News]

Join the journey. When you follow religious artists, you look for others who do the same. Some of us join as "Collectors" and make policy decisions; others join as "Friends" who gather for the dialogues; and most of us join as "Subscribers" to this "free" weekly newsletter; (or follow on: Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, or Soundcloud).

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