The Wanderers Play Review

Marriage is hard. It requires compromise, understanding, and sensitivity to your spouse/significant other’s flaws.

The new play, The Wanderers, by Anna Ziegler follows two Jewish couples (one semi-secular and one religious) and a movie star. Abe (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Sophie (Sarah Cooper) are married and have two children. Both are writers. But while Abe is successful, Sophie’s career is floundering.

Esther (Lucy Freyer) and Schmuli (Dave Klasko) start out as Hasidic newlyweds. Though all seems well in the beginning, they start to emotionally drift from one another. Schmuli is happy to continue with the traditions that he grew up with. But Esther is eager to expand her world.

The narrative is brought together by an email correspondence that Abe has with actress Julia Cheever (Katie Holmes). Though it starts innocently enough, their relationship becomes deeper than expected.

Set in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, this play is fantastic. Though these characters live in a specific neighborhood and live a specific lifestyle, their stories are universal. It’s about trying to find yourself and knowing that in doing so, you may have to break with everything and everyone you love.

What the playwright does especially well is to humanize the character. With antisemitism on the rise, it is easy to create a 2D stereotype. By making them human, she (hopefully) opens the door to a conversation about what we all have in common. She also brings (much-needed) attention to Jews of color, who are often ignored or pushed aside.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

The Wanderers are playing at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre Laura Pels theater in New York City until April 2. Check the website for tickets and showtimes.

Advertisement

Throwback Thursday- American Pie (1999)

Being a teenager is not easy. Looking back, my teenage years were the most confusing, yet defining era of my life.  No matter how old we get or what else we experience, the former teenager that we were will always be a part of our lives.

American Pie, the funny, sometimes gross, but poignant film is about four young men who are looking to loose their virginity before their senior prom.

Jim (Jason Biggs), Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) make a pact to all loose their virginity by the time prom night rolls around. Kevin tries to persuade his girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid) to go all the way with him, Oz joins the school choir and is matched with Heather (Mena Suvari), Finch spreads rumors about his sexual prowess and Jim fails miserably with Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) before going to the prom with Michelle (Alyson Hannigan).

American Pie, for my generation is part of our DNA. It’s not just a movie about boys looking for sex, the female characters are just as real and unsure as any teenager is about life and sex. It’s one of those movies that had stayed with me and it still quotable and watchable after 15 years.

To borrow a line from the movie, its like “warm apple pie”.