Off-Broadway’s ‘Birthright’ is the production that New York Jews need to see this summer

If you went on Birthright in your 20s, you’re likely familiar with the texture of the experience: the friends you made in two weeks who you’re not loosely connected with through Instagram, the questions about identity that you came home with that nobody really gave you a clean answer to, the sporadic text messages that the group still sends each other. Jonathan Spector’s new play Birthright, which opens at the MCC Theater in midtown West on June 5, is essentially about all of that and, based on the cast and creative team attached, it’s shaping up to be one of the more talked-about off-Broadway productions of the summer.

The show follows six friends reuniting nearly two decades after their shared Birthright trip to Israel in 2006, tracing how American Jewish identity, community and loyalty shift and fracture over 18 years of real life. The production is funny, certainly uncomfortable and the sort of thing that’s going to make you think about your own life and relationship with Israel after watching it.

The cast alone is worth the ticket: Abbi Jacobson, Zoë Winters of Succession fame, Tony nominee Eli Gelb (fresh off the award winning Stereophonic) and Hale Appleman, who actually originated his role in the Miami New Drama world premiere. Spector won the Tony for Eureka Day, another production about communities quietly pulling apart at the seams. Same energy here, different fault lines.

Birthright runs through July 12 at MCC’s Newman Mills Theater on West 52nd Street, with opening night set for June 24. Tickets are available now right here.