THE BIG BUPKIS Announces New Admission Policy; No One Over 65 To Be Admitted

By: Gabrielle Sierra Oct. 27, 2009

NO ONE OVER 65! The upstart New Yiddish Rep, a new Yiddish theatre company with a rebellious streak, is thumbing its schnozzola at the very same demographic that you might assume makes up the lion's share of its audience.

Exhibiting major chutzpah, New Yiddish Rep's artistic director David Mandelbaum is instituting a "no one over 65" admission policy for his new show. "The Big Bupkis! A Complete Gentile's Guide to Yiddish Vaudeville," which stars the very young leading man Shane Bertram Baker, begins performances on Saturday November 7 at 9pm and opens on Saturday December 5 at 9pm.

According to Mandelbaum there is a small but growing underground Jewish hipster scene which attracts a defiantly iconoclastic crowd that likes to hang out bingeing on stuffed cabbage 'til all hours, peppering their conversations with Yiddish and complaining. This is his core audience, he asserts, and he thinks that he can bridge that with the more substantial neoburlesque scene. Outlandish?

Co-conceived and directed by Allen Lewis Rickman, "The Big Bupkis!" is an evening of cheap jokes, magic, ukulele music, unpleasant stories about Sophie Tucker, hypnotism, ventriloquism, transvestism, and a Yiddish bullfight poem, among other theatrical indignities; the evening ends with Mr. Baker beheading a volunteer from the audience. "The Big Bupkis!" mixes English and Yiddish, with English supertitles projected over the stage. Shane Bertram Baker, widely recognized as the leading matinée idol in Yiddish vaudeville today, stars and is accompanied by the legendary Steve Sterner.

"The Big Bupkis!" performs at the New Yiddish Rep's permanent home at the Workmen's Circle building, 45 East 33rd Street. Performances are Saturdays at 9pm and Sundays at 7pm. Previews begin Saturday November 7, and the opening is Saturday December 5 at 9pm. Tickets are $25, and a student discount is available. For tickets and more information visit www.NewYiddishRep.org or call (212) 686-5020.

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