Dr. Beethoven and Mr. Broadway

Yisra'el Lutnick believes he has resolved his identity crisis, and brings that resolution to the public in his new show, "Dr. Beethoven and Mr. Broadway." After a successful New York run with the historical odyssey, "Jerusalem Love," he has crafted a show that combines his many different passions. "I've got a lot of things going on that sort of pulled me in different directions," says Lutnick. "On the one hand, I grew up a Beethoven fanatic. On the other, I have always been blown away by the great musicals. On the third hand, I'm a deeply religious person and went to rabbinical school, plus I've been living in Jerusalem for the past decade."

He was born and raised on Long Island, NY. In his home, musical theater classics and classical music were always playing, so he naturally fell in love with them, listening all the time. He studied piano, and eventually majored in music at Yeshiva University in New York, where he also attended cantorial and rabbinical school. He moved to Israel in the 90s, started a band and recorded two albums of Hebrew songs. Then, two years ago, he walked into a general call for an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical theater extravaganza called Any Dream Will Do. To his own surprise, Lutnick was given the role of Joseph. "I completely connected with the song ‘Close Every Door'-- in fact, because of the idea expressed in that song, my life turned in a different direction." After that, he decided that this was his calling and went to New York to study acting, musical theater and comedy, and to get his start in the cabaret world. Since then he has appeared in many Jerusalem based musical and dramatic productions, as well as a run of his first cabaret show, "Jerusalem Love," at New York's Don't Tell Mama and at Los Angeles' The Gardenia.

His newest offering was written with assistance from Stephen Rosenfield, director of the American Comedy Institute in New York. Featuring Paul Salter on the piano, Lutnick tells his personal musical story with a clear tenor voice, and a touch of stand-up comedy. The journey begins with musical theater classics from such shows as The Sound Of Music, Kismet, Pirates of Penzance and You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, and continues through contemporary material, such as The Lion King, songs by Billy Joel and his own original compositions. Lutnick's hope for this show is to "explain why a nice Jewish boy is doing musical comedy and not law/medicine/etcetera, and to share the music that has such power over me."