Anshel Schorr

Anshel Schorr (; October 25, 1871 – May 31, 1942), also known by the anglicized name Albert Schorr, was an Austrian-born American playwright, lyricist, theater manager and composer active in the Yiddish Theatre of the early twentieth century. He worked with many of the famous figures of that era including Joseph Rumshinsky, Arnold Perlmutter, Molly Picon, Jacob P. Adler, and David Kessler, and wrote or co-wrote more than fifty plays and operettas which were widely performed in Europe and the Americas. His wife, Dora Weissman, was also a well-known Yiddish theatre actor.

Biography Early life Anshel Schorr was born in Zolochiv, Galicia, Austria-Hungary on October 25, 1871. His father, Zallel Schorr, was a follower of Hasidic Judaism and a Melamed and his mother was named Rachel Perlmutter. The family relocated to Lviv when Anshel was 6 years old. and , a comedy duet.

In 1912, he became manager of his own theater, the newly-built Comedy Theater on Suffolk Street. He continued to release his own plays at the Arch Street Theater, but when their success was not what he had hoped, he began a new phase of aggressively collaborating and co-writing with many other writers. However, according to his longtime collaborator Sholem Perlmutter, after 1919 he lost his "fire" and seemed demoralized about the state of his career and the Yiddish theatre more broadly.

Selected works (The Jolly Cavaliers) (c.1888, play, as lyricist) (1904, opera) as lyricist, with music by Perlmutter and Wohl (Queen of Sheba) (1907, opera) as lyricist, with music by Joseph Brody (Song of songs) (1911, operetta) with music by Joseph Rumshinsky, staged by Morris Moscovitch, adapted as a film in 1935 (The New Russia) (1917) (1922, musical) as lyricist, with music by Sholom Secunda (The little rabbi) (1935, musical) as librettist, with lyrics by Isidore Lillian and music by Philip Laskowsky