Singer had written a non-musical theatrical adaptation of the stories, Shlemiel the First, which Brustein produced in 1974 when he was the artistic director of Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, and this served to provide the basic material for the musical.
[4] Critic John Lahr, writing in The New Yorker about the show in its run at ART, said that Gordon's "fresh and elegant production ... filters a traditional tale through an avant-garde aesthetic" and has "an element of wonder.
"[5] The original production subsequently played at the Lincoln Center Serious Fun Festival, the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco,[6] the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles[7] – where it earned Gordon Drama-Logue Awards for Outstanding Direction and Choreography – and also toured theatres on the east coast of Florida and in Stamford, Connecticut.
[9] In January 2010, the original David Gordon production, utilizing the original set and costumes designs by Robert Israel and Catherine Zuber, respectively, was remounted at the Alexander Kasser Theatre of Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey, as a co-production of Jedediah Wheeler's Peak Performances and the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene.
[10] That production was remounted under the auspices of Theatre for a New Audience for performances at New York University's Skirball Center in December 2011.