The humor bounces back between more superficial, Borscht Belt-y punch-lines and deeper, “funny-because-it’s-true/sad/shameful” comedy. Jewtopia’s humor is not the flavor that might be expected from the show’s Gen-X writers, Sam Wolfson and Bryan Fogel; it’s less Jon Stewart, more Jackie Mason. Throughout the play, issues of culture and identity pop up like comic whack-a-moles, waiting to be smacked down by ludicrously loud stereotypes and high-energy punch-lines. Throughout, the intent is to portray dating in the modern age, but some audience members see the humor as self-loathing, and the characters’ choices as saying that all’s kosher in love and dating.

As I discussed the play with audience members, Suzy, raised Reform in the Midwest and a NYC-based Jewish communal worker for over a decade, noted that the main characters don’t seem to be searching to embrace another religion per se, rather, they are seeking what their own life experiences lacked. “Chris came from a military home devoid of intimacy and love, and met Jews who love their children, almost too much. Turning to Judaism is his way to connect with people in a way his family never encouraged. And Adam has had too much of that intimacy; therefore, he looks for a woman completely different than himself, that is to say, someone not Jewish,” she comments.

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