Overview
L.A. Weekly writes: "Donald Margulies' very Jewish is full of surprises…Opening at the end of shiva, the play is the story of grief-stricken dry-cleaner Mort, whose wife, Shirley, died the week before after choking on a tough piece of moo shoo pork, leaving a house full of extra furniture because she was in the middle of redecorating. His all-too-loving but increasingly less supportive family is telling him 'enough already, it's time to live your life.' Once Mort is left uncomfortably alone with his teenage son, Artie, the play begins to take its odd turns which happily removes it from the path of Neil Simon family farce. As he convinces Artie to wear his dead mother's sexiest dress, Mort seems to be losing his mind, while Artie does his best to humor him. Then the sudden arrival of a very much alive Shirley explodes everything. The play continues to take every unexpected path as the three try to cope with the situation among themselves and with the rest of the family. Margulies skillfully tosses us back and forth between hilarity and sentimental pain, all the while never leaving gaps of logic in this most illogical situation."Synopsis
L.A. Weekly writes: "Donald Margulies' very Jewish is full of surprises Opening at the end of shiva, the play is the story of grief-stricken dry-cleaner Mort, whose wife, Shirley, died the week before after choking on a tough piece of moo shoo pork, leaving a house full of extra furniture because she was in the middle of redecorating. His all-too-loving but increasingly less supportive family is telling him 'enough already, it's time to live your life.' Once Mort is left uncomfortably alone with his teenage son, Artie, the play begins to take its odd turns which happily removes it from the path of Neil Simon family farce. As he convinces Artie to wear his dead mother's sexiest dress, Mort seems to be losing his mind, while Artie does his best to humor him. Then the sudden arrival of a very much alive Shirley explodes everything. The play continues to take every unexpected path as the three try to cope with the situation among themselves and with the rest of the family. Margulies skillfully tosses us back and forth between hilarity and sentimental pain, all the while never leaving gaps of logic in this most illogical situation."
NY Post
...a playwright of most unusual imaginative power...a delightfully intriguing mish-mash of realism and fantasy in which to wander.