For the Jan Peerce album, see On 2nd Avenue

On Second Avenue is a Yiddish

Yiddish language

Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...

 American musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 production which looks back at the heyday of Yiddish Theater, specially in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

's Lower East Side

Lower East Side

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

 on Second Avenue

Second Avenue (Manhattan)

Second Avenue is an avenue on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan extending from Houston Street at its south end to the Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its north end. A one-way street, vehicular traffic runs only downtown. A bicycle lane in the left hand portion from 55th...

.

The original production produced in 1987 opened at the Norman Thomas Theater on the Lower East Side, and a revival produced in 2005 by the Folksbiene

Folksbiene

The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene is a professional theater company in New York City which produces both Yiddish plays and plays translated into Yiddish, in a theater equipped with simultaneous superscript translation into English...

 opened on the Upper West Side

Upper West Side

The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...

. Both productions were off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

. The revue was put together by Zalmen Mlotek and Moishe Rosenfeld as a sequence of skits, and songs with dialogue in English and songs in Yiddish. The revue features songs from Yiddish theatre greats like Abraham Goldfaden

Abraham Goldfaden

Abraham Goldfaden ; was an Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays.Goldfaden is considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre.In 1876 he founded in...

. The original cast was led by Mary Soreanu and the revival cast by Mike Burstyn to critical acclaim. The revival was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards for 2005 - Best Revival for Folksbiene, and Outstanding Actor for Mike Burstyn.

Two Yiddish music albums by the same name were released by Jan Peerce

Jan Peerce

Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....

 in 1964 (the album is actually called On 2nd Avenue), and by the Hester Street Troupe - but they have no relation to the show.

Reviews

• Original cast review in New York Times
• Revival cast review in New York Times