‘Sukkot’ is a new Off-Broadway show with a pretty funny premise

Although we’re still months away from the holiday marathon that defines Jewish life each fall, a new Off-Broadway production serves as an early reminder that Sukkot is, at its core, a celebration of joy. Aptly titled Sukkot, the play is running at 59E59 Theaters on the Upper East Side through August 9.

The premise is both funny and deeply poignant. Patrick Sullivan (Andy Robinson), the patriarch of a half-Jewish, half-Irish family, is still struggling to process the grief of losing his wife to cancer a year earlier. After a rabbi introduces him to Sukkot, described in the show’s official synopsis as the only holiday “where God directly commands us to rejoice!,” Patrick throws himself into the celebration with renewed purpose. He builds a sukkah in the family’s backyard and insists that his three adult children return home to observe the holiday while also attending their mother’s unveiling ceremony.

The 90-minute production sounds particularly light and enjoyable when compared to the recent roster of Jewish-focused shows that have taken over theaters across town, many of which have leaned hard into grief, loss and generational reckoning rather than joy, including Birthright, about six friends who reunite two decades after a shared trip to Israel, and Hannah Senesh, a one-woman production tracing the life of the Jewish paratrooper who fought the Nazis.

Tickets for Sukkot run between $40 and $54 and are currently available here.