When I was working on the treatment of YENTL — I remember it was a 42-page treatment — it was before it was a musical, and I was trying to make it into a musical. I would write ‘here is a possibility for a song.’ Or I was watching a friend of mine serve her husband eggs rancheros, and I was saying, ‘God, wouldn't it be great to have a wife like that?’ and that became ‘No Wonder.’  

Barbra, from "The Directors" DVD

I actually searched for an actor to play Avigdor for a year. I had wanted a certain kind of androgynous face because this was so much about the unisexuality of what it means to want to study; what it feels like to be male, female; why does that impact the nature of learning anything? I would have liked a feminine kind of man's face, like a Michael Ontkean. But I went with who was the best actor at the time, and that was Mandy Patinkin."

Barbra, from "The Directors" DVD, 2000

More YENTL Articles:

"Barbra Streisand is Yentl" (Press Release) >>

Mandy Patinkin Interview >>

David Watkin (YENTL Cinematographer) Interview >>

I had nine days of rehearsal for all the musical numbers in England with the cast. Before that I would take my video camera, put on my costume, I would dress [Marilyn and Alan Bergman] up in costumes, and with my camera film musical numbers as I thought they should look in the film: the tailor number, this number, the number with Hadass called "No Wonder." And I would use people I knew to play the parts. Let's say the Bergman's daughter, Julie Bergman, once played Hadass and I played Yentl/Anshel.

(Left) Two frames from 8mm film that was shot of Barbra as she walked the European streets in her Yentl costume.

(Left, bottom) Two frames from the video taping of "Tomorrow Night". Marilyn Bergman portrayed one of the tailors.

The undersigned are currently working on the film 'YENTL', which is directed by and stars Barbra Streisand. Because she is subjected to so much adverse press, we thought it might interest you to know that during the last 3 months of rehearsal and filming, she has completely captivated us all. Though undoubtedly a perfectionist, in her dealings with everyone - prod cors, camera, sound, electrical crews, props, wardrobe, makeup, hairdressers, stagehands, actors, extras, stand-ins — she has shared jokes, chats, and pleasantries each and every day. She appears to have no temperament, her voice is scarecely heard on the set, her smile is seen constantly. We have all worked with directors and stars who are the complete antithesis of Barbra Streisand, but whose antics don't reach the newspapers. This letter is entirely unsolicited, and is the result of our collective affection.

The preparation for his role in "Yentl" was no less rigorous. Barbra Streisand - who would produce, direct and star in the movie - sent him a script, which he was obliged to tell her he disliked. Patinkin particularly objected to the characterization of Avigdor, the young man who befriends Yentl, and to whom she takes a shine. Undaunted, Streisand encouraged Patinkin to meet with her and explain his ideas.

Over the course of a year, Patinkin researched the role and held endless meetings with Streisand - during which the script "evolved about 100% to my wishes," he says. In one scene that was cut, Avigdor and th other young men of the shtetl watch the young women swimming naked and discuss their bodies in some detail. "I said, You cannot have it. It's not right. You cannot do a story about people who have all these morals and then all of a sudden break with that ... Barbra agreed, and it was gone."

— Patinkin, interviewed by Evelyn Renold for the Daily News, 1984

The Sept. 1981 screenplay opens with Yentl watching her father in synagogue, then proceeds to the street/marketplace scene. After Yentl's encounter with the bookseller, the screenplay contains a cut scene in which a soldier on horseback grabs Yentl's bottom. Yentl retorts, "What would you know from kosher? Pig!"

Yentl's Engagement to Benzar Berkowitz, the Shoemaker.
After "Where Is It Written?", the 1981 screenplay includes a subplot told in two scenes.

Scene 12. Mr. Gittelman, the matchmaker tells Reb Mendel & Yentl that he has found a match for Yentl.

YENTL
The shoemaker. I don't know anything about shoes. What
would we ever talk about?

GITTELMAN
With respect, Yentl, please don't interfere in matters that don't concern you, thank you.

 

Scene 13. Yentl meets the Berkowitz family. Gittelman hands the marriage papers to Berkowitz. Yentl shows much apprehension. Gittelman's sister makes a joke about a wise saying cross-stitched on a dish-towel. Yentl makes waves by mentioning her studies. The marriage papers are torn up, and Yentl is free of the commitment.

YENTL
On the other hand, I read a proverb in a Hebrew book that says never make a decision before you've weighed both sides of the argument.

1ST SISTER (scandalized)
She read it in a Hebrew book ??

2ND SISTER (horrified)
She reads Hebrew??

YENTL
And there's probably another that says don't believe
everything you read on a dish-towel.

After her father dies, the screenplay implies that Yentl will have to marry Berkowitz. The situation provides more motivation for Yentl to cut her hair and masquerade as a boy.

More Developmental Character Scenes Cut ...

After "Papa Can You Hear Me?" there is a short scene where Yentl, dressed as a man, gets her crotch grabbed by an aggressive peasant woman.

Avigdor and Yentl also have a cute scene in the wagon on the way to the yeshiva. Avigdor asks about the girls in Riga, "Anshel's" home town. "Did you leave one back home?" he asks. Yentl replies, "Um... you could say that..."

"This is One of Those Moments" is not in the Sept. 1981 script. (Barbra confirmed in the Michel Legrand BBC interview that "Moments" was a last-minute addition to the score of Yentl.)

After eating at Hadass's house, there is a sweet scene in Yentl's room where Avigdor speaks about physical passion. He writes the Hebrew letters for Man, Woman, God, Fire and Passion — they're all related. Avigdor asks how Anshel learned to sew.

Several Sins A Day.

The song "Several Sins A Day" comes shortly after "The Way He Makes Me Feel." A demo of "Several Sins" exists. In the script, while studying at the yeshiva, Yentl starts to feel guilty. The description of the scenes in the song are fun. At one point, Avigdor asks Yentl to throw him some food. "You throw like a girl!" he says.

Lyrics to "Several Sins A Day"
As God is watching I'm committing several sins a day
And I commit them even as I'm sitting down to pray
I must admit that I committed several on the way
Oh, how am I to pay for several sins a day?

I know he disapproves of how I'm dressing when I wake
He's adding to his list with ev'ry bread that I don't bake
I must confess that I transgress with babies I don't make
Oh, how am I to pay for several sins a day?

They're heating spikes on which to hook me
Stirring pots in which to cook me
For my wicked ways
They'll give me headaches, cramps and splinters
Hotter summers, colder winters
Plaguing all my days
It's not that I believe in them, I'd be a fool to
But could it hurt to say an extra prayer in shul today?

Though God is not too happy with the way that I behave
It's worth the price if I can get the learning that I crave
It wouldn't hurt if I was also learning to be brave
For the time when I'll pay for my several sins a day

I can't believe I've come this far and no one's gotten wise
And seen through my disguise
Or caught me in the lies I tell
How long can I perpetuate this tampering with fate
I fear the answers wait for me in hell!

As God is watching I'm committing several sings a day
And I commit them even as I'm sitting down to pray
And I submit that I'm omitting several on the way
Oh, how am I to pay
For several sins a day!
I know that I will have to pay
For several sins a day!
Some day I'll have to pay
For several sins a day!

 

hear a sample:

Peshe Subplot, Revelations ...

Yentl has a scene with Peshe, the lady in the Bakery, who flirts with Yentl.

There is a short reprise of "Papa Can You Hear Me?", in voiceover, after the scene where Avigdor says, "About love. How could you understand? You've never felt it."

After the wedding night: Peshe, the Bakery lady, had a "liason" with Avigdor at the wedding. Avigdor questions Yentl about the wedding night. The bookseller from the first scene runs into Yentl: "Don't I know you?"

"No Matter What Happens" is not in the Sept. 1981 script.

On the way to Lublin, where Yentl will tell Avigdor her secret, there is a scene where Avigdor chases her with a lizard and tells Anshel he's running "like a girl."

There is a short scene at the inn in Lublin where Yentl asks the innkeeper for two rooms. Avigdor wants one room for the both of them.

The revelation scene is staged a bit differently in the Sept. 1981 script. After revealing her womanhood, Avigdor rushes out of the room. Yentl follows and delivers the following monologue:

YENTL
A little village ... Yanev ... behind closed curtains ... we always closed the curtains ... He understood, my father understood ... ever since I was a child ... When he died ... What could I do when he died? ... Grow old in Yanev? ... All the questions ... No one now to give me answers ... And then there was you, Avigdor ... at the Inn, the same day as me ... and everything changed ... I should've gone to another town ... but how could I have known that ... I didn't want that ...