Off-Broadway’s ‘Jewtopia’ indulges in cultural clichés

new york | There is an old bit of comic business that involves an elderly Jew who, embracing his people's legacy of sorrow, begins every sentence the same way: "Five thousand years of Jewish suffering."

A new accounting is in order. Make it 5,000 years and two hours for anyone who has had the misfortune of sitting through "Jewtopia," a compendium of Jewish stereotypes and shtick masquerading as a play at the off-Broadway Westside Arts Theatre.

It's a comedy that begins and ends with — what else? — rousing horas to "Hava Negillah." In between, we follow the escapades of two old friends, Chris O'Connell and Adam Lipshitz, and their quest to find Jewish women to marry.

This is more complicated than it would appear. Jewish girls ignore Adam, who is under pressure from his family to marry within the faith. They flock to Chris, who loves them back. But eventually they discover that he is an uncircumcised Irish Catholic — a Jewish wannabe.

Why does he long for a Jewish girl? Marry one, he says, and "you'll never have to make another decision for as long as you live!"

Stereotype No. 1: Jewish women are bossy control freaks. A pact is made. If Adam serves as Chris' entree to the Jewish world, Chris will bring Adam to Jewtopia — a place where there are hundreds of thousands of available Jewish women. Jewtopia is, in fact, the Jewish online dating site, JDate.

"Jewtopia" playwrights Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson, act the parts of Chris and Adam. They are likable performers, certainly up to the material, which is often vulgar and always very, very broad. Others in the able cast of seven play multiple roles — almost all of them cartoonish.

There are some authentically funny moments, a disastrous Purim party, for example. And there are a few nice observations. If a certain Yiddish word for blacks isn't derogatory, how come you'd never use it to a black person's face?

But mostly, "Jewtopia" is one Jewish cliché after another, emoted loudly, as if the very fact that someone has shouted them on stage is somehow funny.

Jews send their food back at restaurants! They don't pay retail! They don't use tools! They are hypochondriacs! Jewish mothers smother their children with guilt!

"Jewtopia" is not a new play. It was previously produced in Los Angeles, where it ran for a surprising 300 performances, closing in August. In New York, the world's largest Jewish metropolis, it is being marketed to groups like Hadassah and B'nai B'rith. The theater is small, and the audience for this kind of comedy, no matter how lame, seems to be inexhaustible.

The show is scheduled to run through March 2005.