Jewtopia follows the story of two single guys — a Jew and a Gentile — on the verge of turning 30 who are obsessed with dating women of the other's religion. The two devise a plan to help both their causes by teaching one another their cultures.
The show, which has run over a year in Los Angeles, previously announced that Jewtopia was "in final negotiations to open Off-Broadway this summer in New York," according to a release. Fogel told The New York Times the Off-Broadway producing team is waiting on availability for several venues.
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I beg to differ, but JEWTOPIA is more of the Jackie Mason shite stereotypes stuff that is in the end negative and unproductive. This play is full of Jewish self-hatred. Stop already. Enough already!
To put it another way, Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson's "Jewtopia" is crude, vulgar, tasteless
while often painfully funny. Yes.
The long-running show, which has moved to
New York, takes nearly every negative Jewish stereotype
on record and blows it up to outrageous proportions. Forget friendly
Borscht-belt humor. "Jewtopia's" aim is largely below the belt.
The show has a clever premise. Chris (Fogel), a disgruntled gentile in
his late 20s, is desperate to find a Jewish mate because he believes
she will gladly make all his decisions for him. To accomplish this,
Chris cuts a deal with his Jewish friend Adam (Wolfson) to teach Chris
everything he needs to know to pass as a Jew. In return, Chris will
help Adam with his own dating problems.
Chris' education in how to be a Jew covers all the basics, including
how to complain about nearly everything in a restaurant and how to
deal with your mother, relatives, rabbis, Jewish holidays and much
more. Meanwhile, Adam is dating Jewish females on the Internet. These
encounters are the play's weakest scenes as the young women he meets
are less Jewish stereotypes than obnoxious cartoons, so far over the
top they manage not to be funny. Generally, the writing in the show is
maddeningly uneven, careening from very funny to very dumb (in the
wrong sense) and back to very funny. Fogel and Wolfson obviously enjoy
playing in their own lucrative creation, and they're not that bad.
Sad, that American Jews have to stoop to this shite. Enough already. Grow up, everyone!
Q & A With Jewtopia Creators Bryan Fogel and Sam
Wolfson
''Are you interested in a 29-year-old Jewish
girl?"
I'm standing in the foyer of the Coast Playhouse
in West Hollywood talking to Bryan Fogel, the
co-writer/co-producer/co-star of "Jewtopia" ¡X a
play that parodies dating, JDating, interdating,
rabbis, Passover seders, Purim, Chanukah bushes,
bar mitzvahs, shofar blowing, other types of
blowing, goyim, Asian fixations, synagogue
memberships and, most of all, Jewish women and
their overbearing mothers ¡X when this
overbearing Jewish mother shamelessly accosts
Fogel outside his dressing room to peddle her
daughter to him.
"I tried to bring her today, but she couldn¡¦t
come," the gray-haired woman continues,
describing her daughter, eventually extracting
Fogel¡¦s information from him ("It¡¦s on the
Playbill," Fogel says).
The whole exchange was all the more surreal
because we had just spent the past two hours
watching a play in which she could have been one
of the characters.
That seems to be the thing about "Jewtopia:" it
skewers Jewish stereotypes, and still leaves most
of the subjects of the satire laughing (like the
aforementioned unfazed pushy mother).
The two-hour play tells the story of Adam
Lipschitz (Sam Wolfson), a Jewish guy facing
extraordinary parental pressure (normal for
Jewish parents) to marry a Jewish woman, who
meets up with an old friend, Chris O¡¦Connell
(Fogel), a Christian obsessed with meeting a
Jewish woman. They strike a Faustian bargain: Sam
will help Chris pass as Jewish if Chris helps Sam
find a Jewish woman to marry.
When The Journal first saw "Jewtopia" on opening
night last May, it was originally set for a
six-week run. Nine sold-out months later and 40
minutes shorter, the play is about to hit its
150th performance. Fogel and Wolfson, together
with Clear Channel Communications, are taking
"Jewtopia" to Chicago in April and, if all goes
well, they plan to open in Boston, Miami and New
York within the next year.
The Jewish Journal: What do you think of this
"Jewtopia" phenomenon?
Bryan Fogel: When we wrote "Jewtopia" we were
hoping it was funny, that people would have our
sense of humor and our sensibility ¡X but
statistically, [knowing] L.A., we were holding
our breath ¡X and we were prepared to be $80,000
in debt.
Before the opening weekend we did a marketing
thing with JDate and The Jewish Federation and
other singles groups, and from that point on it
just took off. Once the [Los Angeles] Times
review came out [last May] we sold 1,500 tickets.
From that Friday on, we were sold out two months
ahead of time. It was just totally bizarre.
JJ: How do you account for the popularity of the
show?
Sam Wolfson: Who knows why people laugh at what?
[At] our show last night one-third of the people
were between 20-30, one-third were between 30-60
and one-third were between 60-80 years old.
[Comedian] Jan Murray brought like 12 people with
him. They laughed as much as the 20-years-olds.
There¡¦s been this wild age crossover.
BF: There¡¦s our generation, and my
grandparents¡¦ and parents¡¦ generation, who
stayed where they were born. There was never any
issue that they weren¡¦t going to marry a Jew;
our generation is the first generation ¡X and I
think it¡¦s similar for Christianity, too. I love
being Jewish, but I think that our generation is
the first generation that crossed that line
between being a cultural versus a practicing Jew.
I think that our generation has started to
question all that.
SW: A perfect example of why people are going
nuts for it: This woman, she must¡¦ve been 70 or
something, and she said, "My son married a
Mongolian [a character in the play meets a
Mongolian woman]. I can¡¦t believe it! How did
you come up with Mongolia? This is my life!"
BF: We had the founder of JDate, Alon Carmel [and
he said], "This is my Mongolian wife ¡X she¡¦s
Japanese, and this is my half-breed child." My
character Chris [is based on my sister¡¦s
husband] ¡X he had the same
military/hunting/fishing background; he
converted, and he¡¦s more Jewish than she¡¦s ever
been.
I think that what¡¦s working ¡X everything we¡¦re
doing is in really, really good fun. The whole
show comes from a love of Judaism. I love being
Jewish. We¡¦ve taken some stereotypes and turned
them on their head in a way that everyone can
identify. What we¡¦re doing is not spiteful,
it¡¦s not coming from any other place but this
zany, irreverence for our culture. When the
Buddist says at the seder, "We can stop suffering
and reach enlightenment, and the grandfather
asks, "Stop suffering?" it¡¦s about a love for
our culture, and I think that the audiences love
it. We¡¦re pleasing most of the people. There¡¦s
always one person who says this is offensive. But
I think that people can say that we¡¦re not
making fun.
JJ: People either love it or hate it. What
offends people? And does this bother you?
BF: In my opinion, 97 percent love it. That 2 or
3 percent who hate it, I think that¡¦s a small
percentage. It seems to be the older people, or
observant, who think we take it too far, that it
reinforces Jewish stereotypes.
SW: These jokes have been going on for 100 years
and suddenly we¡¦re responsible for perpetuating
it?
BF: Jackie Mason, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David,
this self-deprecating humor is Jewish humor, so
when I hear that they are offended, I think they
would be offended by Jackie Mason, too.
SW: I do feel like if a lot of these jokes were
done by those guys ¡X if it was in "The
Producers" they [audiences] wouldn¡¦t think
twice. It¡¦s OK if it¡¦s an established comedian,
but not from two punks who haven¡¦t done it
before. Nobody likes everything. But the fact
that people who don¡¦t like it really don¡¦t like
it ¡X I think that it means we¡¦re doing
something right.
JJ: Speaking of offensive, I thought the play was
a bit misogynistic. (Are Jewish women really that
bad?)
BF: I don¡¦t think the play is misogynistic at
all. There¡¦s no gray area in the play ¡X we just
decided to make everything zany and over-the-top.
Obviously in real life you don¡¦t get peed on [as
Sam does on one of his 150 JDates] but I don¡¦t
think that the stereotypes are directed at Jewish
women.... Just overall craziness, rather than
anything grounded in reality.
SW: Stereotypes are so ridiculous. We made a
conscious decision never to make the Fran
Drescher-type, "Friends" Janice-type. In terms of
presenting the Jewish girl ... when I¡¦m on the
phone [making dates with 150 Jewish women] I¡¦m
happy about it! I¡¦m excited! I break down
because I¡¦m broke and haven¡¦t had sex for six
months.... We never wanted it to be "Jewish women
are bad and evil."
BF: It¡¦s coming from the two guys that wrote it,
and the single dating world. My mother is my best
friend. There was nothing in our writing
spiteful. Sam¡¦s last three girlfriends have been
Jewish.
JJ: Go Sam! Perhaps misogynistic is the wrong
word. Perhaps it¡¦s just uneven ¡X skewering
Jewish women and not Jewish men.
BF: We did write about Jewish men. He has the
pressure of marrying a Jewish woman. These two
guys have a lot of flaws. You couldn¡¦t look at
these guys and think they¡¦re the ideal guy.
SW: No Jewish women were harmed when writing this
play.
JJ: What is the message of this play? Is Adam¡¦s
statement at the end, that "we¡¦re all people and
we should all get along," a statement in favor of
intermarriage?
BF: It¡¦s a reality, that last monologue, that
for better or for worse, it¡¦s more grounded in
the real world. In the ideal world, I¡¦d find a
Jewish girl and you¡¦d find a Jewish guy, but the
importance has diminished because there hasn¡¦t
been the threat of persecution ¡X that we have to
stay together or we¡¦ll die. If I could just find
a Jewish girl that I was into, wouldn¡¦t my life
be easier. Well, that¡¦s not as exciting.
SW: I¡¦m sure it¡¦s the same for everyone and
every religion. It¡¦s a part of the culture, I
guess.
JJ: Has this gotten you more dates?
SW: Well, it hasn¡¦t been bad. We have both met
girls through the show.
JJ: Bryan, would you go out with that girl whose
mother was peddling her the day I saw the show?
BF: I would certainly entertain the idea.
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