Back in this posting, we previewed a new revue forged from two classic comedy records of the sixties: You Don't Have to Be Jewish, and When You're In Love, The Whole World Is Jewish. The new play, which combines material from both with all-new songs and sketches, is called When You're In Love, The Whole World Is Jewish and it's currently playing at the Greenway Court Theatre on, appropriately enough, Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. I saw it Friday evening and I would recommend you rush to get tickets…but you may not be able to. Even though they've extended it another week, as of Friday the entire run was almost sold out. (If you want to check, here's the link. I just looked though and it says no seats are available.)
Friday evening was Press Night, a fine time for them to have technical problems…but they did and they overcame them. I had a very good time because, first of all, I'm a sucker for that kind of humor. The show is 90 minutes of jokes, some of which were ancient when Myron Cohen told them on The Ed Sullivan Show, some new to me. But the oldies were golden oldies and they even did the one about the Klopman Diamond, though for some reason they insisted on calling it the Plotkin Diamond.
And the other main reason I enjoyed myself was that the cast is outstanding. Here — let me embed a photo of them and then tell you who they are…
The men are, left to right: Barry Gordon, Michael Pasternak, Robert Shampain and Jay Brian Winnick. The ladies are, also left to right: Ellen Ratner and Rena Strober. I probably liked Barry Gordon the best just because he's Barry Gordon and I've never seen him not be wonderful…but honestly, there were no standouts because everyone was terrific. They weren't cast that long ago and I suppose it's due to the expertise of the director, Jason Alexander, that the ensemble functioned like they'd been working together forever. I get impressed by teamwork. As in a good basketball game, it's important that someone scores every few seconds and that's only possible with the support of other players.
Actually, there was one standout. There was a fine live band fronted by Deborah Hurwitz. A woman of extraordinary talent, she played and sang what I believe were mostly her compositions between scenes. One musical number also incorporated expert caricatures by artist James Malia, whose work you can enjoy here.
The producers (who also contributed new material, as did Mr. Alexander) are Danny Gold and Billy Riback, and how they put this whole thing together so well is beyond me. I suspect they have a show here that can run and tour as long as there are Jews in this world…or at least, people who appreciate Jewish humor. Which is, of course, everyone. So don't worry that you can't get seats for this run. There'll be another, boychik.