The Yiddish Are Coming

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

The Yiddish are coming. The Yiddish arrived. The Yiddish got up and went.

David Ruffin, Deborah Radloff, Craig Sculli, Dana Baráhy and Adam Shapiro in the world premiere of The Yiddish Are Coming. Photo by Larry Laszlo

This world premiere at the New Denver Civic Theatre, which opened Thursday June 8, has been classified as a comedy. A comedy it is not. Comedy implies funny. Funny it is not. Too bad they can’t go and come again, when they are ready.

Joel Paley is writing the book and lyrics and Marvin Laird is writing the music. Is remains a vital word in the previous sentence, because the musical is still being written, even as the cast is expected to perform professionally. Very difficult to do when the script continues to change. The bios of the cast indicate these are very talented young performers, but the opening night performance didn’t give them much of an opportunity to showcase their talent. The cast includes: Dana Barathy, Deborah Radloff, David Ruffin, Craig Sculli, and Adam Shapiro. Considering changes were made in the script the day of opening night, it is no wonder; they fumbled out of sync in their routines. In discovering the script had been in constant chaotic change, my appreciation for the cast raised several notches.

The Yiddish Are Coming, a Chosen Musical, however is still attempting to decide exactly what it is chosen for. As it stands, or stood on Opening Night, it will attract a very limited audience.

For those who live within the realm of the Yiddish language and Yiddish jokes undoubtedly will appreciate it far more than those who on the perimeter or outside. This was very clear on Opening Night from pockets of the audience who laughed very loud and hard and pockets who barely cracked a smile.

It is not that those who live on the perimeter or on the outside are ignorant of the Yiddish way of life, or the language, or attitudes, it is just that it isn’t all that funny.

Part of it had to do with the script. Many of the jokes seemed to be elementary obvious not so “punny” jokes, or jokes heard so often through friends and other forms of the media, they are too old, too tired, too run into the ground. The two five for a ten joke is older than the hills and begs to be flushed. Playing with language can be fun, funny, hysterical, a giggle but when it romps in a playpen on a primary level, it wears thin before the words are spoken. Word masters the writers are not.

The Yiddish Are Coming depends upon a wanting to play with Yiddish language with the use of 35 words. Some of them have wormed them way into the common vernacular such as: kosher (ritually approved), nosh (snack), shlepp (drag, pull), shmooze (gossip), tuchis (rear end). They may not be used in every day language, but are immediately recognizable. The words are defined in the course of the one-act show, within the context of the script, but that doesn’t help any hilarity to move into high gear.

The premise of this revue is a wannabee-hopeful director by the name of Christian Von Trapp reluctantly takes a director’s job at a Synagogue that wants desperately to win a yearly production award. He tries desperately to hide the fact he isn’t Jewish, tries desperately to get a grasp of this piece of culture that is far more interested in gossiping and eating than in actually going to work on a production. When they finally decided on a focus for their amateur show, and he wholeheartedly thanks Jesus in their midst, he does get an overwhelming emphasized reaction. Of course, they find out who he really is, of course most of them figured it out early in the scheme, and of course, in the end it doesn’t matter, and of course they win. And, of course, for a good many of us the premise seems dated and old hat. It is difficult imagining this production playing well in New York. I would think New York sophistication would collapse in the face of over simplification. I kept waiting for an opportunity to laugh, and it never came.

Paley directed the production, and undoubtedly will be directing it for the length of the run or until the script finds a sense of finalization, whichever comes first. The wobbliness of the script explains the elementary wobbliness of the choreography. Nothing much is required from the dancers. There is nothing particularly astonishing or spectacular from the dance steps designed by AC Ciulla. The execution of the dances comes from Basic Dance 101 appearing as a high school exercise for a local synogogue rather than a professional show. I would expect that script would come from over active hormone driven high school students wanting to be cute and funny. The actors have had no real opportunity to develop their characters, falling into a stylized typical clichéd stereotype. The result is what one would expect from a amateur night at a synagogue following a family potluck.

The Yiddish Are Coming begs to be work-shopped and work-shopped and work-shopped and maybe scratched and started all over again. Maybe the basic question is what is the point? What does it want to do? Accomplish? And who is the targeted audience?

If you’re tempted to go, you might want to seriously consider waiting until the last week when it hopefully has opportunity to get some kind of leg stability.