Arts & Culture | Theater

Sign Of The Times

09/25/2012 | Ted Merwin | Special To The Jewish Week | Theater

Communication between parents and children is often fraught with misunderstanding. But few children are frustrated even by the simple mechanics of relating to their parents. Gloria Rosen’s one-woman show, “Listen … Can You Hear Me Now?,” is the autobiographical tale of a hearing child with two deaf parents. When it ran on the West Coast, the Santa Monica Mirror hailed the show as “amazingly funny,” adding that “audience members, regardless of their backgrounds, identified with it.”

Who Will Live…

09/19/2012 | Ted Merwin | Special To The Jewish Week | Theater

Pregnancy is almost always both physically and emotionally discombobulating. But nothing could have turned Alice Eve Cohen’s world upside down more than learning, at the age of 44, a decade after she had been told that she was infertile, that she was carrying a 6-month-old fetus. Cohen’s new one-woman show, “What I Thought I Knew,” recounts her agonized struggle, during the period between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur in 1999, to decide whether or not to give birth. The show is being performed as part of the All For One Theater Festival in the West Village.

Have I Got A Job For You?

09/11/2012 | Ted Merwin | Special To The Jewish Week | Theater

It may be the world’s oldest profession, but it was the last place that a nice Jewish boy from Dix Hills, L.I., expected to land a job after college. In Josh Mesnik’s autobiographical new comedy, “Have I Got a Girl For You,” directed by Sara Sahin, the playwright stars as the manager of one of the largest escort agencies on the East Coast, a job that taught him the ins and outs of the business of prostitution.

Reb Nachman And ‘Mad’ Dance

09/05/2012 | Ted Merwin | Special To The Jewish Week | Theater

Israeli Men Do ‘Romeo And Juliet’

08/14/2012 | Ted Merwin | Special To The Jewish Week | Theater

Talk about men needing to get in touch with their feminine side. Ido Bornstein’s new comedy, “Dogs,” starting this week at the Fringe Festival, centers on a group of Israeli men, both Jewish and Arab, who stage a musical version of “Romeo and Juliet” that not only helps them to explore their emotions, but leads to one of them getting pregnant! The play, which has enjoyed a successful run in Israel, is newly translated into English; it runs at the New Ohio Theatre in the West Village.

Politics And Power At Fringe Festival

08/07/2012 | Ted Merwin | Special To The Jewish Week | Theater

If you’ve ever worn tzitzit, you know that if you stand still, the fringes stay more or less flat against your body, but as soon as you start to move, they splay out in all directions. The same might be said of the dozens of plays at this year’s Fringe Festival, which are as multifarious, unpredictable and uninhibited as ever.