Beau Jest at Vienna‘s English Theatre

Chicago resident teacher Sarah Goldman is a nice, if mildly neurotic, Jewish girl with a problem: her parents want her married to a nice Jewish boy. They have never met her boyfriend, the very un-Jewish WASP executive Chris. As the devoted daughter that she is, Sarah wants to make her parents happy and so she invents a perfect Jewish boyfriend, “Dr. David Steinberg”. Before long she finds herself caught in her own net, as her parents won’t back down from wanting to meet him. Eventually all that Sarah can think of to save herself from further hassle, is to employ an escort service to send her a Jewish date to impersonate this fictional boyfriend during a family dinner. Instead, they send Bob Schroeder, an aspiring actor, who does indeed look the part but unfortunately is as ‘goy’ as her real boyfriend. Luckily he is a good improviser and knows FIDDLER ON THE ROOF by heart. Sarah’s parents are enraptured, and soon, so is Sarah…

Authors

• James Sherman