Jason Biggs’s contract must require him to simulate sex whenever he appears, even in a role calling for a Yankees yarmulke. Luckily, he’s thrown over pies and Kathleen Turner for a nice Jewish girl played by the delightful, funny Jenn Harris. The jokes in Daniel Goldfarb’s affable comedy about an unlikely friendship between observant and unobservant Jews are as New York–specific as the cityscape set. Knowing laughs are garnered from the Matzoh Ball at Webster Hall, the diamond district, the difficulties faced by a minyan on public transport, and the joys of JDate (here, “Jewdate”). Well acted (Molly Ringwald is charming), it’s a pleasant evening for those who can see the erotic potential of hamantaschen, although its defining characteristic is that—ironically enough for a show chockablock with ethnic jokes—it’s utterly inoffensive.

Modern Orthodox
By Daniel Goldfarb
At Dodger Stages

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• Archive: “Theater Reviews”
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