Ethel Sings

Synopsis: "Ethel Sings" is a romantic dark comedy about Ethel Rosenberg and...? Joan of Arc? Yes... A contemporary St. Joan plays Ethel's alter ego. We see the two young girls as they were and as they might be today- the Jewish "maidel" from New York and the Catholic "maid" from Domremy. And yes... We see them singing and dancing. Ethel and her engineer husband, Julius Rosenberg, were executed as traitors in 1953. Charges of witch-hunts, perjury by witnesses (including Ethel's own brother), and the two young Rosenberg son's reemergence as champions of their parents, continue to provoke debate and drama. After over fify years of silence, co-defendant Morton Sobell made headlines with his admission that he and Julius spied for Russia. Sobell's statement that Ethel was innocent was barely noted. As he bluntly put it: "What was she guilty of? Of being Julius' wife." The play encompasses this and more. Ethel was a talented singer who yearned for stardom. Could this dream and strong identification with Joan of Arc (whom she played on stage) contribute to her untimely death at 37? 1930: Ethel, 15, lives in poverty with her doting father, bitter illiterate mother and two doltish brothers. Quitting school to help support them, she is caught up in the Young COmmunist League's fight for decent working conditions and against fascism. Julius chooses communism for similar reasons; however his excessive need to save the world will be his undoing. Ethel's love of Julius will be hers. Certain that the SOviet Union is our great ally, he recruits Ethel's brother, David, to pass atomic secrets to them. The Rosenbergs are arrested and tried. Though Based on fact,"Ethel Sings" fractures time and space featuring Ethel in a virtusoso display of talent. Whether singing achingly beautiful arias, show tunes or high kicking. Ethel sings to us... Of medieval times, the 50s and the present. She sings to touch our souls and inspire us to action.

Notes: My father (Ethel Rosenberg's relative)tried to save her from execution.