Daily Podcasts Video Research

Stalin Meets Harpo Marx, On Stage

JL;DR SUMMARY Playwright Bernard Besserglik presents a fictional musical comedy, "A Night in the Kremlin," where American Jewish comedian Harpo Marx engages with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin during a goodwill visit to Moscow in 1933. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Soviet UnionTheaterCultural ExchangeSlapstickKremlinJoseph Stalin1933Harpo MarxMusical ComedyBernard Besserglik

Places mentioned

New York, United States
"A Night in the Kremlin, a highly fictional musical comedy that will premiere at New Yorks Midtown International Theatre Festival in July."
Moscow, Russian Federation
"the American Jewish comedian visited Moscow in late 1933, shortly after the United States formally recognized the 16-year-old Soviet Union."
Paris, France
"Bernard Besserglik, the shows writer, told The Shmooze during a phone call from Paris."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 80657
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-04-23 05:31:32 UTC
Curated 2026-04-23 08:31:07 UTC