Indecent dramatizes the epic journey of the Jews in Europe and America in the early part of the 20^th century. Staged with utter brilliance through the story of the staging of a single play, Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance, here is an event at the Cort Theater that brings that controversial 1907 work back to Broadway.

Opening with the actors, suitcases in hand on a bare black space, this 100 minute fast-paced tour from Berlin to Constantinople, to New York and back to Lodz and the great beyond, had the star-packed opening night audience –including Joel Grey, Molly Ringwald, Julie Taymor, Tovah Feldshuh, Arianna Huffington,
Mercedes Ruehl, and many more—revealing where their ancestors were from, how they came to America, where they were during the McCarthy period. No small task, however small the venue, Indecent was a breathtaking sweep for the audience, the cast and crew, and the creators, Paula Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman. More than one said, “This is for my grandmother.”

But back to God of Vengeance, deemed “indecent.” That play-within-the-play features the Jewish proprietor of a brothel, his virgin daughter, in love with one of the prostitutes, and, shanda of shandas, the desecration of a Torah. The stage manager Lemml (Richard Topol) guides us through the key scenes, in English and Yiddish, involving this ensemble (Mimi Lieber, Max Gordon Moore, Tom Nelis, Steven Rattazzi). (The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene associate produced.) Translations appear, projected on a scrim. Bringing the production to America, the producer Harry Weinberger decides: uptown, that is Broadway, cannot handle the lesbian scenes and so they were excised. Still deemed indecent, the troupe is jailed. By now it is the late 1930’s, and the players return to Europe. Wearing yellow stars of David, they perform in hiding in the Lodz Ghetto, before they come to another line. One exquisite scene has the lovers in nightgowns (an especially lithe Katrina Lenk and Adina Verson) dancing in the rain.

That’s the bare bones of a telling that also involves music and song (Matt Darriau, Lisa Gutkin, Aaron Halva) all evoking Yiddishkeit. In her copious research, Vogel found that yes, plays were performed in secret in the ghetto, until the Nazi appointed head of the Jewish elders, Rumkowsky, ordered them to stop. Happily, and with heart and humor, this story, one we may think we know, continues in this theater history, fresh and alive.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura