Jacob and Jack at New Jewish Theatre

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2. Jacob and Jack

James Sherman (From Door to Door) gives us this delightful soufflé of a play. Jack Shore, a well-known television personality, is appearing for one night only in a tribute to his grandfather, Jacob Shemerinsky, great star of the Yiddish Theater. Backstage in his dressing room, Jack confronts his challenges as an actor - and as a husband to his co-starring wife. Simultaneously, 75 years in the past, Jacob has problems of his own. Actors play their past and present roles in a dizzying display of life in the theater in this time-traveling farce that is a smart and classic marital farce ingeniously complicated by historical layering and dual role-playing. From its Yiddish roots to its long obsession to Hollywood, it is a beguiling comic love letter to the American theater, a crackling little commentary on actors - and their mothers, wives, girlfriends and managers. A door-slamming comedy, it is a clever tribute to Yiddish Theatre as well as to vain glorious stage actors.