Jim Shankman to Direct JAY AND RUBY GET RELIGION This Month at Medicine Show Theatre

In an age when religion and fundamentalism seem to control world affairs, a very funny and very timely new comedy skewers the topic. JAY AND RUBY GET RELIGION is written by Joe Hoover and directed by Broadway vet Jim Shankman.

Hoover has a unique background for this issue, he is a Jesuit brother, the Roman Catholic order to which Pope Francis belongs. (In fact, the pope is scheduled to arrive in New York just three hours before the play will premiere.) Shankman appeared in the Broadway shows GREASE and ONCE IN A LIFETIME. He is an accomplished playwright in his own right, winning the 2015 Fringe Best Playwriting Award for THE SCREENWRITER DIES OF HIS OWN FREE WILL.

There are only four performances: Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015 at 8 p.m.; Friday, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The show will be staged at the Medicine Show Theatre space, located at 549 W. 52nd Street, 3rd Floor, near 11th Ave., subway C/E 50th St.

The play has the jokes and the rhythms of a classic madcap comedy with a modern edge. It focuses on Ruby, a spiritually impatient New York actress looking for religion and constantly disappointed by what she finds. She encounters hot-button issues like abortion, sex abuse and historic corruption in the church along the way.

Hoover is also in the cast. He has had a number of plays produced in New York and his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. He has also published essays in Best Catholic Writing 2006 and Best Spiritual Writing 2012. Others with a religious background include associate producer Cole Matson, a Ph.D. candidate in Theology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, he also holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; as well as cast member John Roney, who co-produces The Actors' Chapel Presents at St. Malachy's Church in Times Square. Roney has appeared on several episodes of Law and Order, SVU, and Rescue Me. Also in the cast: Jeremy Levy who has appeared with the Barrow Group and has extensive voice-over credits; Geri-Nikole Love, co-founder of the Movement Theatre Co. who has a BFA from Tisch; and Javana Mundy who recently earned her MFA from The Actors Studio at Pace University.

Tickets are $15.00, available at brownpapertickets.com. For more information, go to jayandruby.com.