Awake and Sing!

Water Matthau heads the cast of this television re-creation of Clifford Odet's 1935 Broadway play-the full length work performed on the commercial stage by the legendary Group Theatre. This portrait of a Jewish family in a Bronx tenement perfectly captures the spirit of the depression years, and is suffused with details of character and place that combine to be affecting even now. The Bergers burdened by fanatical difficulties have taken in a boarder - Moe Axelrod "Mathew Matthau"-who lost a leg in World War I. Cynical and outspoken, Moe adds a spark to the somewhat accepting lives of the Bergers. The family fights to survive on sixteen dollars a week while the intellectual, Marxist leaning grandfather "brilliantly played by famed Yiddish theatre star, Leo Fuchs" tries futilely to spur his family to action with the junction, "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust." -Isaiah 26:19