Dani Silver

July 26, 2019

Theatre, Reviews

Oklahoma! ★★★★

Dani Silver

July 26, 2019

Theatre, Reviews

Richard Rodgers’ and Oscar Hammerstein’s first great collaboration was a sensation when it premiered in in New York in 1943 at the height of the War. The duo of upper middle-class Jewish New Yorkers hit a nerve when they reimagined Lynn Rigg’s 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs…

Judi Herman

December 21, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

One Jewish Boy ★★★★

Judi Herman

December 21, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Since playwright Stephen Laughton embarked on writing his response to the rise of antisemitism, attacks both physical and virtual have increased. It continues to be hot news and Laughton himself has been the subject of invective online and posters for the play have been defaced…

Judi Herman

December 19, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Caroline, Or Change ★★★★★

Judi Herman

December 19, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Since I first saw Caroline, Or Change at its 2017 premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre, it has enjoyed a triumphant transfer to Hampstead Theatre and now opens in London’s West End. Some roles have been recast for the Playhouse Theatre with equally talented performers. If possible…

Judi Herman

December 14, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Fiddler on the Roof ★★★★★

Judi Herman

December 14, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Fresh from a richly evocative tour of the ‘real Anatevka’ led by Sholom Aleichem himself (aka Saul Reichlin in his one-man show), I find myself in the heart of the shtetl again. Here at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a huddle of dimly-lit run-down dwellings embraces villagers onstage and in the…

Judi Herman

December 12, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Borders and Games ★★★★

Judi Herman

December 12, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Henry Naylor writes theatre that makes you sit up and listen. He needs you to engage with the terrors and injustices of the Syrian conflict now; he wants you to share his indignation at historic wrongs and persecution in Nazi Germany. But equally he knows that to hammer…

Judi Herman

October 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Company ★★★★★

Judi Herman

October 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

The 1970 London production of Company was my first experience of a Sondheim musical and for me a revelation and a game-changer. I was enchanted by the marriage of music and words, the sophistication of both and the wit and precision of the man’s lyrics (he once said…

Judi Herman

June 26, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Kiss Me Kate ★★★★

Judi Herman

June 26, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Kiss Me Kate is credited with reviving Cole Porter’s flagging post-war career and from Opera North’s glorious revival it’s easy to see why. Sam and Bella Spewack, the Jewish power couple behind the book, had worked with Porter before and Bella insisted Porter was invited to write…

Judi Herman

June 22, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Finishing the Picture ★★★★

Judi Herman

June 22, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Several of Miller’s plays are revealingly autobiographical and this, his last, is an intriguing part of the story. Getting its European premiere here, Finishing the Picture does indeed deal with endings, although it is set some decades before he wrote it in 2004. By the time Marilyn Monroe was…

Judi Herman

May 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Into the Woods ★★★

Judi Herman

May 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

I tried explaining Sondheim’s complex morality fable to my five-year-old granddaughter. “You might find it scary," I said. "It weaves together the stories of Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk with a new story about a baker and his wife. The pair long for…

Judi Herman

May 29, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Shirleymander ★★★★

Judi Herman

May 29, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Known for her wickedly accurate voicing of Edwina Currie in Spitting Image, Jessica Martin is ideal casting for another prominent Jewish Tory gal: Shirley Porter. This larger-than-life anti-heroine was leader of Westminster Council from 1983 to 1991. Martin’s Porter is vociferous…

Judi Herman

May 27, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

The Chess Player ★★★★

Judi Herman

May 27, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

A masterly staging of a gripping war game. I have to admit to not being a chess player. It’s a tribute to Richard McElvain, and of course to Stefan Zweig’s original story, that this dramatised account of how a man might survive and even triumph over extreme deprivation…

Danielle Goldstein

May 25, 2018

Books & Poetry

David Herman celebrates Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint

Danielle Goldstein

May 25, 2018

Books & Poetry

Classic choice: David Herman celebrates Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. “Why are you so nasty?” Brenda asks Neil in Philip Roth’s first book, Goodbye, Columbus. Nasty? Neil was tame stuff compared to some of Roth’s later heroes and no one comes nastier than…

Judi Herman

May 17, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Effigies of Wickedness ★★★★

Judi Herman

May 17, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

A riot of colour, challenging ideas and songs with bite that the Nazis tried to ban. When the Nazis branded music by Jewish composers and ‘negro music’, the so-called ‘degenerate’ music of the Weimar cabaret, an ‘effigy of wickedness’ – they banned it too. But not before staging a Degenerate Music Exhibition…

Judi Herman

May 15, 2018

Previews

Get a look at the four student films set to be showcased at the 11th TAU Night at the Movies

Judi Herman

May 15, 2018

Previews

Get a look at the four student films set to be showcased at the 11th TAU Night at the Movies

Israel is rightly famed for its thriving film industry for directors, actors and other creatives who produce films that provide snapshots of life in Israel. From delicious quirky comedies to tense dramas: they are not afraid to engage with…

Judi Herman

May 15, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

SHOW ★★★★

Judi Herman

May 15, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Hofesh Shechter’s apprentice company dances up a whirlwind of comedy and menace. Celebrated choreographer Hofesh Shechter presents Shechter II, his apprentice company for dancers ages 18-25. Just eight extraordinary young international talents, chosen from over 1,000 who auditioned, prove they are already…