THE ESSENCE: A YIDDISH THEATRE DIM SUM
Directed by Allen Lewis Rickman
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing, you'll get nauseous. Nostalgia-free. Guaranteed, or we give you your 85 minutes back.
WHEN: November 21-24; Thursday 7:30, Friday and Sunday 2 PM, Friday and Saturday 8 PM
WHERE: Kutz Theatre of the Lackland Center, 715 Grand Ave., Hackettstown
TICKETS: $25 for adults on Friday and Sunday and $27.50 on Saturday with discounts for seniors, students and children under 12. Thursday evening tickets are $25 with a two-for-one Family Night rush discount when purchased at the door.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.centenarystageco.org, at the CSC Box Office in The Lackland Center at 715 Grand Ave in Hackettstown, or by calling 908.979.0900.
The Box Office is open Monday through Friday 1-5 PM, and 2 hours prior to performance times. CSC also has a Box Office open during the main season at 217 Main Street in Hackettstown open Monday through Friday 3-6 PM.
"HILARIOUS AND SMART... There wasn't a dry eye in the room, but the tears were from laughter... The icing on the kichel"—HUFFINGTON POST
It’s time to close up CSC’s third annual Black Box Festival with the show that played to sold-out audiences in last year’s New York Fringe Festival. The Essence: A Yiddish Theatre Dim Sum is a rollicking comedy that lets audiences in on the best kept secret—Yiddish is actually cool. (L-R: Steve Sterner, Yelena Shmulenson, and Alan Lewis Rickman; Credit George Xenos)
The Essence… is a fast-moving revue for people who know nothing about Yiddish and couldn’t imagine attending a show with Yiddish in it. It’s about the most expressive and theatrical language in the world, with scenes, sketches, songs, and oddball diversions with an irreverent introduction to all things Yiddish.
Actor and Director Allen Lewis Rickman invites audiences to “see what happens when you sin with a shiksa, come jam to Soviet Yiddish Rock, and hear Einstein’s theory debated by imbeciles.” Rickman and fellow actor Yelena Shmulenson are better known as the shtetl couple from the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated A Serious Man and are joined on the stage by Broadway veteran Steve Sterner.
Described by its creators as “a crash course” in Jewish culture, The Essence… features drama, melodrama, music, peculiarities of the language, and the Yiddish New Testament. “This is not one of those nostalgia shows for the Jewish elderly, not at all,” said Rickman. “We translate the Yiddish sections with supertitles, so it’s kind of like they’re watching a wise-assed foreign movie.”
Beyond A Serious Man, Rickman is familiar from his work in Barry Levinson’s Emmy-winning You Don’t Know Jack and his recurring role on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Broadway-goers might have also seen him in Relatively Speaking. Shmulenson has appeared in The Good Shepherd and on ABC’s Life On Mars and also made an appearance on Boardwalk Empire. Sterner, also the show’s musical director, appeared on Broadway in Oh, Brother and The Sheik of Avenue B, and is perhaps New York’s best-known silent film accompanist.
The 2013-14 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, and CSC sponsors, including Premier Sponsor Heath Village Retirement Community, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, The Holiday Inn in Budd Lake, and Fulton Bank, Bronze Sponsors The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and Wells Fargo Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.
