Panto has long been a staple of the Christmas season, but what of Hanukkah? JW3 has just the ticket! The north London Jewish cultural centre has not only put on a cracker of a show (running until early January, including…
Escapologist Harry Houdini was a legend in his own lifetime. His headline-grabbing stunts, involving mystifying, often lurid escapes from chains, padlocks, water tanks and suspension from skyscrapers, ensured that his reputation would live on long after his death. He boasted that he…
In light of the current tension in the Middle East and an increase in antisemitic activity around the world, it would seem there's little to laugh about right now. Cue the musical with idiosyncratic punctuation in its title, a UK debut from Israeli playwright and composer Uri Agnon that's not…
Truman Productions’ mission statement is to develop and amplify new, female-led contemporary Jewish writing. Its latest show, These Demons by Rachel Bellman, is a warm, funny and properly hair-raising drama that ticks all those boxes and more. In a run-down cottage in the woods…
The Łódź Ghetto, established by the Nazis in Poland, was always on the infamous list of places where Jews were confined before eventual deportation (for most) to the death camps. This partly fictionalised account of its inception is all too plausible. That the Russian writer…
Shortly before the breakout of World War II, Ruby Wax's parents, both of whom were Jewish, fled Vienna and arrived in America in 1938. Less than two decades later, Wax was born in Evanston, Illinois. But she has never felt truly…
As a cultured and affluent-looking couple celebrating their golden wedding share leftover cake from the party over a crossword, you could be forgiven for assuming we were already tackling marriage. But when another woman…
It’s 40 years since the musical set in the Côte d'Azur drag club of the title, and based on Jean Poiret’s Francophile farce, opened on Broadway, where it ran for four years. With book and lyrics by Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy) and a wonderfully vivid score, by turns…
At the bongs of Big Ben we hear a news reporter telling us that Hitler is dead. But “you shouldn't believe everything you hear on the radio. Ay up!” In the depths of rural Yorkshire, hides four very naughty boys – The Nazi Boys – Goebbels (Marcus Churchill), Himmler (Michael…