WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE IN "JEWTOPIA'?
By David Cuthbert
"Steppin' Out" Theater Guy
In reviewing “JEWTOPIA,” I think I should qualify myself as Theater GOY, albeit one with a show business past. Which means that from a very young age, I heard Yiddish spoken, but it took me years to figure out that when my father used the word “gonif” he meant simply “thief” and not “crooked, thieving, no-good night club owner.”
“JEWTOPIA” is a laugh-a-minute comedy that turns Jewish and Gentile stereotypes topsy-turvy and just when you think it’s wrung every possible laugh from its premise, finds a few more. There are about three or four endings before the cast exits singing “Hava Nagila.”
Matthew Mickal and Joe Seibert play two odd couple buddies who meet again at an Inter-Temple Rockin’ Young Jewish Singles’ Mixer. Mickal is a Gentile passing for Jewish so he can capture the Jewish American Princess of his dreams and thus never have to make another decision in his life. Siebert IS Jewish and thus obliged to find a nice Jewish girl, but isn’t having much luck. They conspire to help each other via JDATE.com, where girls with usernames like “Chop Jewy” and “Jewbacca” hang out. There are crash courses in Judaism for Dummies, date vignettes, a nightmare Passover seder and the art of “ordering Jewish” at a restaurant that is straight out of a Jackie Mason routine.
Michael & Siebert make endearingly funny, horny schlubs, Tari Hohn enacts contrasting, hilarious Jewish mothers and Martin Covert’s Rabbi Schlomo gets some of the biggest, most valid laughs in the show. Completing the cast: Veronica Belletto as a flock of facocked females, Michael Cahill as two nebbishes, the unexpected Joy Chun Duke, and little Elizabeth Donner who can outscream everyone on stage. And does.
Gary Rucker directs this craziness ever so deftly.
And as my wife said, you should walk, not run, to see “JEWTOPIA,” because God forbid you should trip and hurt yourself and not make it to the box-office to get a ticket.
Rucker also reminds us that “Spooky Dog” continues to play late-night Saturdays at Le Chat and if you see both shows, you get a $5 discount.
Such a bargain!
JEWTOPIA
Le Chat Noir
Jan 8-24
Fr&Sat at 8pm, Sun at 6pm
SPOOKY DOG
Saturdays, 10:30pm following JEWTOPIA
SDog tickets only $5 when you see JEWTOPIA