‘The Immigrant’: Universal experience

UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE

It’s a curious pick for most-produced play of 1990, yet “The Immigrant” – Mark Harelik’s saga of his Jewish grandparents’ bewildered arrival and bumpy adaptation in 1909 Texas – has taken root first as a play and now a West Coast premiere musical at Burbank’s Colony Theatre. The appeal of Russian émigrés Haskell and Leah and their adoption by a banker and his God-fearing wife is that the story is at once hyper-specific and epically American; Haskell enters selling bananas and exits owning his own grocery store with three sons fighting in World War II. Pictured: Matleh and Haskell in 1919. Matleh’s name has been changed to Leah in the play. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 and 7 p.m. Sun., ends May 4 (see website for complete schedule). 555 N. 3rd St. $37-$42. (818) 558-7000, Ext. 15; www.colonytheatre.org