MY SON THE WAITER Extends at The Triad Theatre Through 5/31

One of the season's tastier hits, "My Son the Waiter, A Jewish Tragedy is still piping hot and extending a third time. Brad Zimmerman's deliciously self-skewering account of three decades of underachievement as a beloved bad waiter is now on sale at the Triad Theatre, 158 West 72nd Street, through Sunday May 31.

The show that The New York Times calls, "Delicious, distinctly original and bittersweetly on target" was originally scheduled to end its twelve-week, Off-Broadway premiere engagement on New Year's Eve. Its first extension was to March 2; in January it announced that tickets were on sale until April 5. Now the show that has New Yorkers eating out of Zimmerman's hands will go for a total of 33 weeks.

Written and directed by Zimmerman, "My Son the Waiter" tells the story of how Zimmerman, now pushing 60, waited tables in New York for a mind-numbing 29 years, before finally overcoming his fears to study stand-up comedy, and write a one-man show about waiting until his mid-50s to perform on stage.

A unique hybrid of long-form stand-up and theatre, "My Son the Waiter" has been called "easily the funniest show to hit Off-Broadway since 'Old Jews Telling Jokes," by Curt Schleier in The Forward, who pulls no punches by adding that it's "belly shaking funny." In her glowing review in The Times, Anita Gates called "My Son the Waiter" "powerfully poignant."

An Oradell NJ native, Zimmerman attended Riverdell High School and was bar mitzvahed at Temple Emmanuel in Westwood, NJ. He started his waiting career in the late '70s eventually working at a string of now defunct restaurants where he insists he never memorized the menu, making an art form out of underselling the food.

In the past decade the late-blooming Zimmerman finally broke his losing streak as a struggling waiter, opening for comedy legends Joan Rivers and George Carlin. (Rivers once called him "the best comic... in his price range.") But he continued waiting tables, still unable to fully commit himself to acting and comedy. He handed out his last check at Chat 'n Chew in 2012.

The regular performance schedule is Monday at 7pm; Friday at 7pm; Saturday at 2pm & 7pm, and Sunday at 2pm. There are slight variations to the schedule, as follows: No shows on Mondays March 9 and 16 at 7pm; Saturday March 28 at 7pm, and Friday April 3 (Passover) at 7pm. For tickets, which range from $45 to $99 (+ a 2-drink minimum), call Smarttix at 212/868-4444 or visit www.mysonthewaiter.com (Running time is 90 minutes.)

"My Son the Waiter, A Jewish Tragedy" is produced by Dana Matthow and Philip Roger Roy's Playhouse Productions, Inc., the team behind successful tours of "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy," "RESPECT: A Musical Journey of Women," "Old Jews Telling Jokes" and "You Say Tomato, I Say Shut UP!"

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