Choice Presentation – Baroness Rothschild – The Hebrew Theatre
A dramatic play about Baroness Rothschild and the world of jazz in New York, at the Netanya Cultural Center. Accompanied by a live orchestra and lasting an hour and a half without an intermission.
“The Baroness Rothschild”
A powerful historical-human drama set between post–World War II Europe and New York’s jazz world in the 1950s.
At the heart of the play is the true story of Pannonica “Nica” Rothschild, a baroness from the legendary Rothschild family. Wealthy, educated, and a mother of five, she is trapped within a rigid social role: serving as the “beautiful face” of a family defined by money and status.
Behind the glamorous façade is an unfree, emotionally repressed woman controlled by her diplomat husband and her brother, Baron Rothschild, who leads the family.
The turning point comes when she is accidentally exposed to the music of Thelonious Monk, a brilliant yet ostracized and impoverished jazz pianist. His music shakes her and opens a deep crack in her identity.
Nica leaves her life in Europe and travels to New York, where she is drawn into the jazz world—a world of genius, addiction, racism, poverty, freedom, and chaos. She becomes a patron of Black musicians, foremost among them pianist Monk and legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. She gives them money, shelter, a piano, the freedom to play—and above all, trust and respect.
But her involvement, even though motivated by love and a desire to save, soon deteriorates: Parker dies in her room, Monk runs into trouble with the law, American society refuses to accept the breaking of racial and class barriers, the media revels in stories of “the corrupt baroness,” her family in Europe disowns her, and the tension between idealism and reality grows ever more acute.
Nica is forced to choose between the Rothschild name and the person she chooses to become. The freedom she gives others clashes with personal pain: the children left behind, the relationship that fell apart, and the realization that true freedom is not romantic—it is painful, dangerous, and demands sacrifice.
The performance features a live orchestra on stage.
Running time: 90 minutes, without intermission
Written by: Yehonadav Tzadka
Directed by: Gadi Tzadka
Music: Yehonatan Perlman
Set design: Adam Keller
Lighting: Ziv Voloshin
Costumes: Yehudit Aharon
Poster photography: Pini Siluk
Cast: Neta Plotnik, Gil Weinberg, Gabriel Demidov, Einos Eino, Adi Almo, Tovit Samai, Oren Habut, Yiftach Kaminer, Erez Weiss, Shani Sarim
Photography: Pini Siluk
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