theater

Although William Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice in the late 1500s, experts still debate whether the play, about a merchant named Antonio who defaults on a loan he takes out on behalf of his friend Bassanio through Jewish moneylender Shylock, is replete with antisemitic tropes or simply explores the very concept of antisemitism through ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star T.R. Knight to star in Off-Broadway production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’

You’ve got until September 1 to catch The Sabbath Girl at 59E59 Theaters on the Upper East Side. The 90-minute musical tells the story of Angie Mastrantoni, an Italian-American art gallerist that lives on the Upper West Side and doesn’t have much time for romance until Seth, her divorced Orthodox Jewish neighbor, knocks on her ‘The Sabbath Girl’ is a New York-based rom-com musical playing in Manhattan this month

Following a pretty successful run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last winter, the heartbreaking Off-Broadway production Our Class is gearing up for a premiere in Manhattan at Classic Stage Company’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater at 136 East 13th Street by Third Avenue in the East Village. The 2009 play by Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek Off-Broadway hit ‘Our Class’ transfers to Manhattan next month

In an odd casting choice that we are sure will lead to an initial boom in ticket sales, Nick Jonas has been tapped to take on the role of Jamie Wellerstein, a Jewish rising novelist, in the first-ever Broadway production of The Last Five Years, a musical written by Jason Robert Brown that first landed Nick Jonas to star in first-ever Broadway production of ‘The Last Five Years’

Joining a crowded roster of recent productions focusing on the Holocaust, Here There Are Blueberries is a new play about a real-life photo album that belonged to an SS officer that helped run Auschwitz. A finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in drama (the award eventually went to Primary Trust by Eboni Booth), the 90-minute This 90-minute play about a chilling album of WWII photos was a Pulitzer Prize finalist

First set up in New York in 2012 by Selfhelp Community Services, Witness Theater brings survivors and high school students together on a stage to dissect the happenings of the Holocaust, its repercussions and the importance of remembering. Next week on both May 8 and 9, the group puts on In Person at the Marlene Holocaust survivors and high school students take the stage at the JCC Manhattan next week

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann is a new play by director and producer David Serero that’s scheduled to premiere Off-Broadway at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street by Fifth Avenue on May 21. The play, set in Jerusalem in 1961, focuses on the real-life trial of Eichmann, a German-Austrian official of A new play about Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann will premiere in NYC next month

Exagoge immersive play

If you fancy experimental takes on historical texts, then Exagoge, a new immersive opera play about the Passover seder, is for you. Premiering at avant-garde arts center Ellen Stewart Theatre at 66 East 4th Street by Cooper Square in the East Village on April 26 (the fifth night of Passover!), the 90-minute show will run An immersive opera play about the Passover seder is premiering in NYC this month

A new play about the attacks of October 7 in Israel hopes to highlight the atrocities that will forever define the country’s modern history by highlighting the accounts of those who lived through it all. Aptly dubbed October 7, the show, written by Phelim McAleer, is a verbatim play—that is, a staged documentary of sorts, A new unfiltered play about October 7 featuring survivors’ testimonies will open in NYC this May

The Ally

Watching The Ally, Itamar Moses’ play currently staged at the Public Theater, is an enraging experience. The show stars Josh Radnor as Asaf Sternheim, a Jewish, liberal and self-defined atheist professor teaching at a non-defined university, who is asked by a former Black student, Baron Prince (Elijah Jones), to sign a manifesto seeking justice for Poignant and timely play ‘The Ally’ will leave you infuriated