What is "yentl"

Yentl is a play by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Based on Singer's short story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy," it centers on a young girl who defies tradition by discussing and debating Jewish law and theology with her rabbi father. When he dies, she cuts her hair, dresses as a man, and sets out to find a yeshiva where she can continue to study Talmud and live secretly as a male named Anshel. When her study partner Avigdor discovers the truth, Yentl's assertions that she is "neither one sex nor the other" and has "the soul of a man in the body of a woman" suggest the character is undergoing a gender identity crisis, especially when she opts to remain living as Anshel for the rest of her life.

After eleven previews, the Broadway production, directed by Robert Kalfin, opened on October 23, 1975 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran for 223 performances. The cast included Tovah Feldshuh, John Shea, and Lynn Ann Leveridge.

Yentl is a 1983 American romantic musical drama film from United Artists (through MGM), and directed, co-written, co-produced, and starring Barbra Streisand based on the play of the same name by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer, itself based on Singer's short story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy".

The dramatic story incorporates humor and music to relate the odyssey of an Ashkenazi Jewish girl in Poland who decides to dress and live like a man so that she can receive an education in Talmudic Law after her father dies. This cultural gender asymmetry that Yentl endures has been referenced in the medical community with the coining of the phrase Yentl Syndrome. The film's musical score and songs, composed by Michel Legrand, include the songs " Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and " The Way He Makes Me Feel", both sung by Streisand. The film received the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Director for Streisand, making her the first woman to have won Best Director at the Golden Globes.

The original soundtrack to the film Yentl was released on November 8, 1983. It was produced by Barbra Streisand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and arranged and conducted by Michel Legrand. The music is by Legrand and the lyrics by the Bergmans. The album peaked at #9 on the Billboard Top 200 LP chart was gold and platinum status on January 9, 1984 by the RIAA for shipping 500,000 and 1,000,000 copies respectively. According to the liner notes of Barbra's retrospective box set: Just for the Record, the album also received a record certification in France, the Netherlands and Israel. Barbra told to "Digital Audio & Compact Disc Review" magazine, that the album sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.