It's De-Jewy: The 4th Annual Broadway Purim Shpiel

Last year, Jewcy received an invitation to the 3rd Annual Broadway Purim Shpiel. At the time, Jewcy couldn't afford any real reporters, and both our editors, Weiss and Izzy, were indisposed.

Jewcy's editor-in-chief Raz called me into his office. "Leinoff!" he bellowed, ashes from his fat cigar dropping into his lap, "I need you to cover the 3rd Annual Broadway Purim Shpiel at the Hudson Theater on 44th Street!"

So I went, and I had a right good time. I met Doctor Ruth, Seth Rudetsky, an Israeli guy, and even some other people! Naturally, I had to go back for this year's performance.

Sadly, the 4thAnnual Broadway Purim Shpiel was notably less fun than the 3rd Annual Broadway Purim Shpiel. I did enjoy the opening performance -- wherein a woman pretended to be wealthy entrepreneur and friend of Jewcy Michael Steinhardt (later in the evening, Steinhardt had someone put a bullet in her head from 1800 yards away) -- but host Jackie Hoffman was a little trying for my tastes. She came out strong, but soon her act degenerated into a series of rimshot-inducing puns on Judaism and JAPs and what-have-you. When is one time too many when it comes to "Jewish mothers cook a lot of food" jokes? Never, if you're the Broadway Purim Shpiel.

The musical numbers were the highlight of the show, but a three-piece band couldn't totally do them justice. The spoken bits were more of a chore in general. Although Iris Bahr's excerpts from her spoken off-broadway show, DAI (enough) were impressive, improv group "Don't Quit Your Night Job" failed to deliver the goods with two painful experiments in Broadway-themed comedy.

In the end, I'm glad I went. They served free dessert! (But where were the hamantaschen?) Still, the highlight of my evening shouldn't have been chasing around the same photographer who snubbed me last year, trying to snap a photo of his elusive face. But maybe that says more about me than the show.

Here's a photo gallery commemorating all the fun times we had.