Musical Markers of Judaism as Moralistic Signifiers in Harold Rome’s I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Talk by Michael Buchler at Sonic Representations of Jewishness on Screen and Off at UCLA, April 19-21, 2026.

Harold Rome’s 1962 musical I Can Get it For You Wholesale satirically depicted unfettered capitalism and the difficulties trade unions encountered during the great depression. Set in 1937, Rome’s selective blend of traditional Jewish/Yiddish musical elements with less-marked Broadway techniques respectively portrayed two very different kinds of Jewish characters: those who stayed true to their culture and those who assimilated and left behind their friends and family. This talk draws from Jewish involvement in labor history, Yiddish song scholarship, and musical topic, form, and lyrical analysis.

Michael Buchler is Professor of Music Theory at Florida State University, where he has taught since 2002. From 2021–2023, he served as President of the Society for Music Theory. His 2023 book Here for the Hearing: Analyzing the Music in Musical Theater (co-edited with Greg Decker) was awarded SMT’s 2024 prize for Outstanding Multi-Authored Collection. It was published by University of Michigan Press. He is also an active member of his faculty union, serving as Co-Chief Negotiator
and he is an elected representative to both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. His academic work focuses on music-analytical intersections of musical theater, political activism, and labor.