Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstad,” a work for which the acclaimed British playwright mined the Jewish heritage he discovered later in life, is headed to Broadway.
Named after the Jewish ghetto of Vienna during World War II, “Leopoldstadt” tells the story of 50 years in the life of a wealthy intermarried family in the early part of the 20th century. It will premiere at the Longacre Theater in New York in September.
Stoppard, born Tomas Straussler, did not discover his Jewish ancestry until the 1990s. His non-observer family fled their native Czechoslovakia to Singapore during World War II, and then left India after being invaded there by Japan. Stoppard’s father was killed by a Japanese bomb.
Stoppard has won numerous Tony and Academy Awards for writing acclaimed stage plays such as “Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” and Hollywood films such as “Shakespeare in Love”. A privateer, Stoppard rarely discussed his Jewish identity publicly.
“It’s a far cry from the story I lived in,” he told the London Jewish Chronicle. “It has a lot to do with being Jewish, knowing whether you are Jewish, accepting whether you are Jewish, whether you are Jewish or not… I’m looking over.”
His son Ed starred in the London production of the play, which debuted in 2020.
“I’ve never felt more connected to my heritage,” Ed Stoppard told the Guardian.
