Bad Jews- Page 2

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 9/29/13 at 5:14pm

My point is still that the ownership of the necklace is not the main conflict of the play. The main conflict is two diverging views on religion and culture. The necklace is a throwaway signifier of this. Could be anything.

Reviews were great last time, and I can't imagine why they'd be any different this time round.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/29/13 at 6:22pm

^

Can't imagine either.

Which only proves just how wretched our present-day critics are.

As if any further proof is necessary!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/2/13 at 6:37pm

I saw it this afternoon and while I did chuckle a couple of times, I wasn't a fan. I thought all four actors were fine, but for the first half I just hated Liam. He came across as even more of a snot than Daphna. And then at the halfway point, Daphna takes the reins and makes Liam look like a total gem in comparison. I've seen plenty of plays with unlikable lead characters that I have enjoyed, but these two were practically insufferably nasty.

The central conflict and themes are stretched beyond their breaking point (how did Harmon manage to make this story 100+ minutes long...? It felt like one of the longest 100 minute shows I've seen in a while.) and the play just gradually grows more and more repetitive and grating. A few funny zingers does not an enjoyable play make. Also, the play has WAY too many long-winded diatribes from Daphna and Liam. Each of them must have like three or four seemingly endless monologues that already tell us something we've been told 25 times before. I do have to give kudos to Roundabout though, for at least giving us a fresh, young-feeling play instead of another old chestnut. Too bad this one just isn't much of anything special.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 10/2/13 at 6:56pm

How is it a fresh, young feeling play if it sucks? I'm not saying it does suck because I have not yet seen it, and frankly, now I'm dreading seeing it based on these comments, but I don't see how you trash it and then call it a fresh, young feeling play. Unless "fresh young feeling play" = crap.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 10/2/13 at 7:05pm

I think this is a fairly obvious reason but Wicked is saying that this isn't just some revival of a crappy old play that the Roundabout is known for doing (i.e. ROAD TO MECCA, THE BIG KNIFE). A play doesn't have to be good in order to feel fresh and young.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/2/13 at 7:11pm

Because it's a contemporary, original play written by a young playwright and it's about a group of young twenty-somethings. It starts with a Nicki Minaj song for God's sake.

It's fresh and young feeling, which can, yes, also be crap

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 10/2/13 at 7:18pm

Ah ha. Got it. So instead of old crap, it's young crap. Way to go, Roundabout. Crap for every generation.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/2/13 at 7:28pm

Okay, but I never said that.

I do have to give kudos to Roundabout though, for at least giving us a fresh, young-feeling play instead of another old chestnut. Too bad this one just isn't much of anything special. Updated On: 10/2/13 at 07:28 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 10/2/13 at 10:05pm

I saw it tonight and I do say, it plays better than it reads.

I still can't say I was a fan.

As others have said, it's much too long for the material (this could have been a tight hour-long play, really), and Liam and Daphna are really two of the most insufferable characters ever conceived.

I will say, Tracee Chimo does an excellent job. Although Daphna is really a gorgon, I do say I have known people like her. And they are people I have deliberately cut out of my life.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 10/3/13 at 12:36am

Saw this tonight and I have to say I really loved it. Best play since Vanya Masha and Spike. Loved the funny arguments about clinging to culture vs assimilating. Loved the bitchery of the Bad Jews. I felt as if I knew these characters. Tracee Chimo gives a riveting performance and I predict a bright acting future (if not stardom) for her. Molly Ranson was also quite good. The men not quite as strong. Especially if you are Jewish. Compelling night of theatre. See this play! Great pick by Roundabout. Takes a few minutes to plug in but once you do...watch out.

Updated On: 10/3/13 at 12:36 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/3/13 at 1:34am

That is some good stuff you are smoking Golden Boy

To mention this piece of **** in the same sentence as Vanya boggles the mind.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 10/3/13 at 11:22pm

Well, I finally saw it, and maybe having read all the bad reviews here prepared me for a disaster. I was expecting a horrible play and that is not what I got.

It was a wonderful production of a very smart play, full of drama, and wit. I highly recommend this. The performance I saw was pretty fantastic. I

[goldenboy]

Posted: 10/4/13 at 1:02am

I guess Matt and I are smoking the same stuff. Think its helps to be Jewish to like this play.

[Pammylicious]

Posted: 10/4/13 at 10:48pm

I absolutely agree about being Jewish to appreciate it. I saw many parts of my own cousins in each of the characters. I loved it!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/5/13 at 3:39pm

Mrs R is Jewish and she hated it as well

[JoshLovesRent]

Posted: 10/5/13 at 6:05pm

I completely agree! i saw the matinee today, was probably the only young person there. Was a great, very entertaining play. I was very engaged even though I don't know much about Jewish Culture, i would recommend the show very much. We also had a incident where the show almost stopped because the elderly couple behind me were talking and shouting so loud. I even spoke to the actors about it after the show but they are true pros and didn't break once!

[aaronb]

Posted: 10/6/13 at 3:57am

Well, I had read some of the stuff posted here before going and was expecting something mediocre or awful--something like what I imagine My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy being. But I have to say I thought this was a brilliant, hilarious play.

"Being a Jew is exhausting. There’s the self-loathing, the guilt, the language (which doesn’t even use Roman letters), and—for those of us born after 1948—the inescapable identification of Jewishness with Auschwitz. Even the question of what it means to consider oneself a Jew is too complex for any reasonable person to try to answer completely. But Joshua Harmon’s hysterical, brilliant play Bad Jews at least holds a mirror up to the modern iteration of the tribe and challenges everyone from the self-righteous Zionist to the bacon-eating secularist ... Bad Jews isn’t for the lighthearted. It draws a great deal of blood, but it gets away with its attacks because it is so damn funny. This is the best depiction of contemporary Jewishness since Kinky Friedman’s 'We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to You.' "
My review of BAD JEWS

[After Eight]

Posted: 10/6/13 at 7:15am

"Being a Jew is exhausting. There’s the self-loathing"

Speak for yourself, please.



Updated On: 10/6/13 at 07:15 AM

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 10/9/13 at 11:18am

The show got extended for a week and I have to ask myself why. It's getting papered every week so it doesn't seem like audiences are clamoring to see it.
Official Link

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 10/9/13 at 11:45am

Maybe they're extending to fill the overwhelming demand... for comps.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 10/9/13 at 12:12pm

For some reason, reviews were even BETTER at the Laura Pels, so maybe ticket sales have spiked since then?

[Kad]

Posted: 10/9/13 at 12:22pm

Sales have definitely spiked. And it's not exactly getting papered much.

Winslow Boy, on the other hand...

[AndrewAndrew]

Posted: 10/9/13 at 4:08pm

The intriguingly titled Bad Jews is a small play, taking place in real time it has a cast of only four and never changes location. But as the zealous Daphna Feygenbaum points out the number of jewish nobel prize winners is disproportionately large compared to their global population. Find out if her fire-brand style of rhetoric is for you in our full review.
Click for Video review of BAD JEWS

[aaronb]

Posted: 10/10/13 at 1:25am

Speak for yourself, please.

I believe that's what I'm doing.

[jbm2]

Posted: 10/10/13 at 2:38am

What's the running time?