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As of 2001, 28 million married or cohabitating Americans were in some kind of interfaith relationship, according to a survey referenced in Beau Jest’s program notes by Jewish Community Center’s Director of Cultural Arts Krista Lang Blackwood. I am one of them. And as I watched James Sherman’s play unfold at the White Theatre under Mark Swezey’s direction, it was like holding up a mirror to my own situation. I tell you this as a critic for transparency’s sake, but also to point out how relevant this excellent production is to today’s society. Beau Jest is a hilarious, almost-comedy-of-errors about a Jewish woman who falls in love with not one, but two non-Jewish men and must fess up to her family. Beyond that, it’s an expertly acted and directed lesson about honesty. As one character says in the play, “There’s the truth, and then there’s everything else.”

A young Jewish woman named Sarah Goldman (Rebecca Johnston) has been dating a Protestant guy named Chris (Bob Kohler) on the sly. Meanwhile, to stop her mother Miriam (Cathy Wood) from cutting out any more personal ads or setting her up with random Jewish men, Sarah invents the perfect Jewish boyfriend, Dr. David Goldstein, and hires a non-Jewish actor-escort, Bob (Patrick Lewallen), to portray him at her family’s Passover seder. Over the course of a few weeks, Sarah’s deceptions begin to unravel, and she is forced to confront her parents, and herself, about the man she loves.

Each character is something of a stereotype but also utterly believable. Each time Sarah’s father Abe (Greg Butell) comes over for dinner, he announces, “For an hour, we looked for a parking space!” He and Miriam argue constantly about mundane issues in loud voices; they bring the same dish to each dinner; Miriam calls her children four times a day. Sarah’s brother Joel (Bobby Miller), a divorced therapist, sits detached and disgruntled at each meal, although he eventually pinpoints Sarah’s problems. When Joel picks apart Sarah’s lies, the dialogue gets a little preachy, but he’s right. Sarah is keeping herself from being happy. All of this comes together to paint a picture of a “typical” Jewish family, and so Bob’s (pretending to be David) slip-ups are all the more glaring. Some of the funniest moments are Bob’s off-the-cuff saves, such as when he uses his experience acting in Fiddler on the Roof to recite the correct prayers in Hebrew at dinner.

Beau Jest’s tight-knit cast makes the show. The actors’ stellar flow of dialogue is funny on the surface while revealing deeper implications in the same breath. Johnston and Lewallen have great chemistry—when they kiss, their attraction seems real. To highlight Joel’s disconnectedness, Miller reads Passover passages mechanically, while Lewallen highlights each line as if reciting a monologue on stage. Butell gets to shine when, as Abe, he begins listing good reasons to lie, such as saving yourself during the Holocaust, in contrast to Sarah’s own lies. It’s an intense moment, almost hard to watch, but a great bit of acting.

The set (Ken Schmidt), an unchanging and sedate family-and-dining room in pastels, acts as a traditional backbone to Sarah’s breaking of tradition. Music (Jeramy Tipton) in transitions between scenes echoes bits of the plot, including selections from operas, traditional Jewish tunes, and songs from Fiddler. Costumes (Leslie Spindler) are consistent yet unremarkable, which highlights the fact that these are everyday people with not-so-everyday problems.

As the house lights came up, two older Jewish women behind me began discussing whether Beau Jest, with its many references to specific prayers and Jewish rituals, was “too ethnic” for non-Jews. But this play is relevant outside the Jewish community in that its conflicts center on the idea of interfaith relationships, not the rituals themselves. Bob’s awkward plunging into a new cultural world gains authenticity through the rituals, and we can see why Sarah is so worried about introducing a non-Jew to the family, as he would have to adapt to her sometimes complicated family culture. And this isn’t a Jewish worry. It’s a human worry.

“My mother is determined to make me happy whether I like it or not,” Sarah says at the start of the play. But what she learns is that, ultimately, it’s not only up to our parents to make us happy. It’s up to us. 

REVIEW:
Jewish Community Center/White Theatre Performing Arts Series
Beau Jest
Runs December 3 through 11, 2011 (reviewed Saturday, December 3)
White Theatre, Jewish Community Center of Kansas City
5801 West 115th Street, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 913-327-8054 or online at http://www.jcckc.org

Top Photo: Greg Butell & Rebecca Johnston in Beau Jest (Photo by Ruth Baum Bigus)

By Jessica Showers

Theatre Contributor

Jessica Showers, a long-time believer in the collaborative power of the performing arts, is a Midwest native and Kansas City-based arts journalist. She is on the editorial board for The Sondheim Review, a quarterly magazine dedicated to the work of renowned composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Jessica received a master's degree in arts journalism with a focus in theatre from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a bachelor's degree in magazine journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. As part of her graduate coursework, Jessica partnered with Charleston, S.C.'s daily paper The Post and Courier to cover theatre at Spoleto Festival USA. She also interned in New York City for American Theatre magazine and for Syracuse Stage, Syracuse, N.Y.'s local LORT theatre organization. Jessica looks forward to delving into Kansas City's wealth of theatricality and sharing it with KCM's readers.

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