Just For Us takes us through hilarious anecdotes from Edelman’s life — his Olympian brother AJ, an unconventional holiday season, and a gorilla that can do sign language — but at its center is an astonishing and frighteningly relevant story. After a string of anti-Semitic abuse is directed at Edelman online, he decides to covertly attend a gathering of White Nationalists in New York City and comes face to face with the alt-right abusers. The result is a hair-raising encounter that gives ‘Just for Us’ its title and final, jaw-dropping twist.
The core of Just For Us is Edelman unwinding this central story of what happened at that meeting, interspersed with frequent tangents about his life and upbringing in a religiously observant Jewish family from Boston. Though similar to a stand-up comedy routine, Just For Us' focus on this meeting gives it a theatrical aura worthy of the Hudson Theatre (especially when Edelman assembles stools on stage to mimic the semicircle formation he remembers), and there's a lot of physicality with the performer running back and forth. He's an energetic, self-deprecating raconteur whose stories are also quite thought-provoking.
Charming, likeable, humorously self-effacing, Edelman is meticulous in detailing the oddness and incongruity of his encounter, and mining the comedy of it. But he is also continuing an age-old Jewish tradition –employing humor as a shield, but also as a weapon, against the massive irrational hatred.
Digital Rush
Price: $33
Where: On the Today Tix app.
When: Released on a first-come, first-served basis every performance day at 9 AM.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Subject to availability.
2022 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Return Production Off-Broadway |
2023 | West End |
West End |
2023 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Drama League Awards | Disinguished Performance | Alex Edelman |
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