There is some interesting staging & performances. In Edinburgh, it earned a Herald Angel Award, a nomination for Best Show, and superlative praise that made it the best reviewed comedy show at the Festival in a decade. Sure, thats what the comedian Alex Edelmans publicists said would happen when his solo show, Just for Us, abruptly cut short its run there in December, promising a Jan. 24 return. Read more. In its premiere run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, it was nominated for a Barry Award for Best Show. A lot of American Jews have found liberation, comedic and otherwise, in slipping off the suffocating embrace of ritual and tradition. All reviews for the show can be found here. Which is a sharply relevant observation in the midst of this ideologically polarized public health crisis. He has a springy walk, a peppy, engaged stage presencepandering and solicitous, in his own wordsand a Muppet-ish physicality, with emphatic jellyfish hands that he likes to flop and flail, and big eyes that pop wide in astonishment or narrow in conspiratorial outrage when a beat needs holding. It's a mentorship play. He opens with a bit about Koko the Gorilla and Robin Williams, then follows it up with one about horses and step counts. My third solo show, Just For Us, has been running in NYC. Edelman was skeptical, but politics, of a sort, ended up finding him. Not kid-friendly. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. With Edelman. The result is a hair-raising encounter that gives Just For Us its title and final, jaw-dropping twist. Outside the theater, which is at the bend of Commerce Street, is a colorful quasi-psychedelic portrait of Edelman. your interested in new work still in development. He grew up Modern Orthodox in this really racist part of Boston called Boston; Jewishness is central to his life, and to his sense of self, but it hasnt always been central to his act. For Jews in certain situations, white privilege is only skin deep. This Sports in America Docuseries for the US State Department. Thanks for subscribing! Its peppered with relevant imagery (eg. Edelman premieredJust For Usin 2018 at theMelbourne International Comedy Festival, where he earned a Barry Award nomination for Best Show. Over the course of his blossoming career, Alex Edelman has made a habit of curating a catalog of material that is both wildly funny and thought-provoking. Cherry Lane Theatre presents this new family drama about siblings fighting to keep each other safe from the demons their parents created. Which rankled, because part of him wanted them to like him. The follow-up to Millennial, this show was about family, Jewish identity and the scarcity of plug sockets in airports. Partly, this is because hes too Jewish for the secular circles he runs in; he went to yeshiva, still regularly attends synagogue, and, to fellow-comedians, seems a beard away from being a rabbi. This illustration cleverly reflects what the performance is about. Edelmanhe brandishes his real name, David Yosef Shimon ben Elazar Reuven Alex Halevi Edelman, at the audience like a fistful of snakescontrasts himself with his observant father, who doesnt understand why, out of this veritable charm bracelet of kosher monikers, his son would pick the only one that could pass as trayf. This is going to be way too Jewish for most of you, Edelman says, before punning on the word shul. Is it? you're going for a developed, polished play. It has been such a thrill to perform this show around the world, and Im so excited for the opportunity to bring it to the Cherry Lane, a venue I revere, Edelman says of the opportunity. Edelman, who goes in as a fish dangerously out of water, finds that he is, in fact, in his element; hes a compulsive talker who has never met a crowd of people that he doesnt want to win over, even if that crowd might prefer that he not exist. Running time: 1hr 15mins. A show about traumatic stock photos and Generation Y, Millennial won an Edinburgh Comedy Award, the first American offering to do so since Arj Barkers 1997 show. Don't see it if The comedy show then went on to run in the UK atLondons Soho Theater and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, earning aHerald Angel Award there after rave reviews. If I was raised secular, I think Id consider myself bisexual, he confesses, at one point. Im going to be performing JUST FOR US a solo show I wrote about attending a meeting of white nationalists at the amazing @CherryLnTheatre from Dec 1-19.Its presented by @birbigs and is on sale, well, right now.https://t.co/ZKaTJOyEKM pic.twitter.com/TnedMn3btg, Alex Edelmans Just For Us to begin run at NYCs Cherry Lane Theatre. More philosophically, the show pokes and prods at empathy and morality, and the ways that othering whole categories of people makes it easy to dehumanize them. Some very real dialogue, good performances, direction and design, Don't see it if Partly, its because hes not Jewish enough. Tom Stoppard makes a similar joke in his recent epic play Leopoldstadt, only there the tree topper is a Star of David. menagerie glass theatre In the show Just for Us (directed by Adam Brace and produced by Mike Birbiglia), which Edelman is performing at the SoHo Playhouse after a buzzy, sold-out run earlier this year at the Cherry Lane, he wears pristine white sneakers, snug black jeans, and a shirt buttoned all the way up to its point collar. Edelman has performed this piece in Australia and London, receiving superlative praise at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. If you can be hilarious, tell a story and speak to a societal issue in a thoughtful way, then it becomes a must-see theatrical experience. Its not hard to ridicule a bunch of bigots; nor, more than half a century after Springtime for Hitler, is the exercise particularly scandalous or groundbreaking, even if it remains surpassingly gratifying when done well. Williamstown Theater Festival - Tickets here! It may deserve a show of its own. Sometimes people know that Im Jewish because of my name, or my face, or anything about my personality, he tells us, near the start. But when a production goes into pandemic hibernation, its easy to worry that it wont emerge again. Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. (Spoiler Alert): Don't see this play if you are uncomfortable with a theme of Brother/Sister incest; also there's flashing lights & smoking! The follow-up, EVERYTHING HANDED TO YOU about identity and the availability of outlets in airports was even more acclaimed: selling out its entire Edinburgh run and garnering the second best reviews of any comedy show at the Festival. Produced by fellow Massachusetts native and the unofficial godfather of wildly successful one-man shows, Mike Birbiglia, Edelmans latest creative endeavor touches on a myriad of topics in and around his own life, including his Olympian brother AJ, an unconventional holiday season, and a gorilla that can do sign language, all the while further employing his dangerously sharp comedic wit to chronicle his experiences while covertly attending a White Nationalist gathering in New York City. Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox. 2022 Cond Nast. The aesthetic splendor of The Simpsons.. A meeting was taking place, in Queens, for people curious to explore their #whiteness. They were determined, and it was a good day for levity. It is now available on Netflix UK.Selected performances/runs: 2015: Leicester Comedy Festival (Nominee, Best Show), Edinburgh Fringe, Scotland, 2016: Soho Theater (London), Melbourne Comedy Festival (Australia), Union Hall (New York), Every story is a precision-engineered Rolls-Royce of a routine, perfectly timed and constructed. Steve Bennett, Chortle. A favorite at international Fringe festivals, Edelman is known for being sharp-witted but rarely political; his fright night with the alt-right was ostensibly inspired by a barrage of anti-Semitic tweetsand a colleague who nagged him to take a stand in his stand-upbut surely also by the promise of hilarious potential material in store. Performance schedules for all shows are subject to change. Artwork, as always, done by the incredible Tristan Eaton. VIDEO: Betsy Wolfe and Stark Sands Get Ready to Bring & JULIET to Broadway, INTO THE WOODS Extends Broadway Run by 8 Weeks, VIDEO: Watch Alex Newell & Cast of THE LAST SUPPER Sing 'Raise a Glass'. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Under Adam Brace's well-calibrated direction, and employing just one mic and three stools, Edelman conjures a roomful of enemies he naively believes he can charm. The ambience is more support group than hate group, if you leave aside the fact that the attendees are griping about Prince Harrys marriage to Meghan Markle, the scourge of reverse racism, and, of course, the Jews. Hi. Thats the unresolved question that kept ringing in my ears. Others? So, what the hell is Nope all about anyway. Its such a good story, and so funny, and so well told, I havent stopped thinking about it since.. Edelman performed an earlier iteration of, Keep up with the latest news and reviews on our. 90-min. Just for Uscomes on the heels of 2015'sEverything Handed to You and 2014's Millennial,Edelman's other comedy shows. Just For Ustakes us through hilarious anecdotes from Edelmans life his Olympian brother AJ, an unconventional holiday season, and a gorilla that can do sign languagebut at its center is anastonishingand frighteningly relevant story. Well-acted for the most part. Is the dreidel detail true? You enjoy excruciatingly loud yelling, the f word being used in nearly every sentence, a play that makes you feel like you need to shower ! They always come up afterwards to ask I know the comedian Modi. Were EXTENDING AGAIN AND MOVING to the Greenwich House Theatre on Barrow Street from June 13 to August 26. NYers, please come. Then the noreaster threatened it again. Side-splitting laughter with a jaw-dropping twist. Edleman deftly interweaves disparate tales about his Israeli Olympian brother, an unkosher Christmas, Jared Kushner and religion-based vaccine hesitancy into a portrait of the entertainer as a young Jewish man in a polarized society. The one-man show, which runs a week of preview performances from Wednesday, December 1 to Tuesday, December 7 before its official opening night on December 8, brings us into a brand new corner of Edelmans mind as the Brookline native discusses different avenues in his life that, according to the shows synopsis, will have us feeling all the feels. He twines the story of that prepandemic gathering, which began with the assembled racists grousing about the then-recent wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with a recollection from his early childhood: the time his mother, seeking to comfort a bereaved friend, decided that their Orthodox Jewish family would host a Christmas celebration for her, complete with presents and a tree. Bona fides for it are below in the solo show section. They don't succumb, of course, but theatergoers do. A brisk, smart provocation of a monologue., - Among Edelmans many strengths as a writer and performer is an exceptional eye for the absurd. - The New Yorker. Either way, it works. As a friend points out to him, the essence of white privilege is being able to walk into a room full of wannabe neo-Nazis confident that you will emerge unscathed. The considerable success of Edelmans show depends on a second act of infiltration. Prior to that, he served as a staff writer on THE GREAT INDOORS for CBS.Besides his narrative stuff, Edelman has written for countless awards shows, including the BRITs and the BAFTAs. From the moment he comes out on stage you know you are in for a top class evening of comedy. While Edelman is unsurprisingly excited to bring it home to the states in this capacity, Birbiglia has some praise of his own that highlights his excitement for the shows NYC run. Tickets are not currently available. Don't see it if In case you havent yet heard about it from its past two NYC runs (or its Melbourne or Scotland engagements, or U.K. tour),Alex EdelmansJust For Usis about how he received anti-Semitic hate from white supremacists on Twitter and, as a totally natural next step, went to a nearby neo-Nazi meeting to see what their deal really was. Times Square transforms into a digital playground with new AR experience, Suspects remain at large after robbery at Chelsea club turns into, Caesars Sportsbook promo code AMNY15 drives best UFC 277, MLB weekend specials, MLB free picks and best bets for July 29th, FanDuel promo code: UFC 277, MLB no-sweat first bet plus other specials, BetMGM promo code: 20-1 UFC 277, MLB bonus this weekend, Brian Daboll looks to bring more pre-snap motion to spice up, New Brooklyn Is My Happy Place pop-up to bring unique, Costumed revelers march in 46th Village Halloween Parade, REAL ESTATE: The Village: Proud and charming.