Plays & Musicals About the Jewish Experience

Jewish theatre in the United States began as a way for Jewish artists to express themselves while simultaneously preserving the culture of the Eastern European shtetl. These early works were often written and performed in the Yiddish language. As time progressed, Yiddish theatre began to fade in popularity and a more American sound emerged in Jewish theatre. Concord Theatricals proudly represents an array of titles that uplift Jewish voices from every time period.

We’ve compiled a list of plays and musicals centered around the Jewish experience. Whether you’re looking to read or produce them, these shows each shine a light on a unique aspect of Jewish culture, tradition and history. Leaf through this list to learn more!

A Shayna Maidel by Barbara Lebow (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 2m)
A powerful and deeply affecting portrait of a family that conveys the aftermath of the Holocaust through a poignant examination of one divided family’s experience. “Americanized” Rose Weiss – now in her twenties – came to the United States with her father, Mordechai, at the age of four from Poland without her mother and sister. The rest of the family’s escape was cut off by the rise of the Nazis and a subsequent relocation to the concentration camps, where only her sister survived. When Mordechai gives Rose a letter from her belated mother, a “proof” of family is somehow restored, and old griefs and guilt give way to a renewed hope – and the conviction that a better future may yet arise from the bitter ashes of the past.

Alex Edelman’s Just For Us by Alex Edelman (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 1 any)
After following an anti-Semitic tweet aimed in his direction down an online rabbit hole, comedian Alex Edelman found himself in an unexpected place: at a meeting of White Nationalists in Queens, face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards. What follows makes up the backbone of this show, equal parts hilarious and gripping, that made its way from small London theatres to a unanimously well-received hit run on Broadway. Within Just For Us, Edelman, who was awarded a Special Tony Award for the show, explores religion, cultural identity, assimilation, empathy and gorillas that speak sign language. Most importantly of all, he explores what it means to be confronted with hatred.

Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 2m)
The night after their grandfather’s funeral, three cousins engage in a verbal (and sometimes physical) battle. In one corner is Daphna Feygenbaum, a “Real Jew” who is volatile, self-assured and unbending. In the other is her equally stubborn cousin Liam, a secular and entitled young man, who has his shiksa girlfriend, Melody, in tow. Stuck in the middle is Liam’s brother, Jonah, who tries to stay out of the fray.

Brighton Beach Memoirs (US/UK), Biloxi Blues (US/UK) & Broadway Bound (US/UK) by Neil Simon
(Full-Length Plays, Dramatic Comedy)
Together, these three plays make up Neil Simon’s autobiographical trilogy of acclaimed dramatic comedies. Ranging from 6-8 characters, the plays follow Eugene (Simon’s stand-in for himself) through various stages of life. The first play highlights his adolescence and family life in a Jewish household, the second illuminates his experience of WWII, and the third chronicles the author’s attempt to break into the world of show business.

Bring Back My Bonny to Me by Noa Gottlieb (US)
(Short Play, Drama / 4w)
This short play explores the relationship between religion and sexuality. A mother-daughter relationship is put to the test as a young Jewish girl reveals to her mother that she is a lesbian.

Broken Glass by Arthur Miller (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 3m)
Brooklyn, New York. November, 1938. Sylvia Gellburg has mysteriously become paralyzed from the waist down. Is it because of the horrors being inflicted on Jewish people around the world, or is it something more personal? According to the doctor, the only way to discover the cause of her paralysis is to probe into her psyche. All layers of the characters’ lives unfold dramatically in this stunning exploration of what it meant to be American and Jewish in 1938.

Cantorial by Ira Levin (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 4m)
In this melodic comedy, the disembodied voice of a Hebraic cantor convinces a skeptic to think more deeply about Judaism. A couple – Warren and Lesley – move into a renovated condo that was formerly a synagogue. Everything seems perfect… until they begin to hear mysterious Hebrew singing. After failing to get rid of the voice, Warren becomes entranced, even learning Yiddish to try to connect with the spirit. With levity and wit, Levin’s Jewish ghost story makes for a diverting theatrical page-turner.

Conversations with My Father by Herb Gardner (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 9m, 2 boys)
From the award-winning author of I’m Not Rappaport and A Thousand Clowns comes a powerful and funny play about three generations of a Jewish family on the Lower East Side. Incorporating autobiographical elements, this Pulitzer Prize-winning story dramatizes what it’s like to melt as well as simmer in American society while exploring the universality of the father-son relationship.

Crossing Jerusalem by Julia Pascal (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 3m)
Crossing Jerusalem takes place over the course of 24 hours. This is the story of an Israeli family in March 2002, as they cross Jerusalem at the beginning of the latest intifada. As tensions heighten, drama breaks out among the family.

District Merchants by Aaron Posner (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 5m)
Love, loss, litigation and predatory lending are examined in surprising ways in this uneasy comedy, which wades fearlessly into the endless complexities and contradictions of life in America by reworking The Merchant of Venice with modern flair. Set among the Black and Jewish populations of an imagined time and place that is simultaneously Shakespearean, Reconstruction-era Washington, D.C., and today, this profound adaptation is a remarkable tale of money, merchandise and mercy brought to the stage.

Eight Nights by Jennifer Maisel (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
This inspirational drama follows Holocaust survivor Rebecca Blum and her family as they grow and evolve as Americans over the course of eight decades. In their Lower East Side apartment, Rebecca, her father, future husband, daughter and more celebrate each night of Chanukah, the festival of lights.

Falsettos by William Finn and James Lapine (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 3w, 3m, 1 boy)
Hilarious, heartbreaking and utterly unique, Falsettos is a contemporary musical about family, relationships, bar mitvahs, baseball and AIDS. When Marvin leaves his wife Trina and son Jason to be with his lover Whizzer, tempers flare, problems escalate and everyone learns to grow up. Stories that feature these same characters once more include March of the Falsettos (US) and Falsettoland (US).

Funny Girl by Jule Styne, Bob Merrill and Isobel Lennart (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m)
This ebullient musical follows the life of iconic Jewish performer Fanny Brice. Always underestimated, Fanny defies expectation and rises to fame. From family life to romance to the entertainment world, viewers get an inside look at Fanny’s meteoric rise to stardom. With an exhilarating score, this show is a guaranteed good time!

Goldie, Max & Milk by Karen Hartman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 1m)
It’s 2009; Max is unemployed, her house is falling apart, and her ex, Lisa, is on the loose. On top of all that, she has no clue how to nurse her newborn baby. Can Goldie, an Orthodox Jewish lactation consultant, guide Max into motherhood? Or will conflicting family values get the better of them both? A play about cultural differences, motherhood and the many ways to love children. 

Handle with Care by Charlotte Cohn and Jason Odell Williams (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 2m)
In this delightful bilingual romantic comedy, circumstances both hilarious and tragic bring together a young Israeli woman, who has little command of English, and a young American man, who has little command of romance. Is their inevitable love an accident… or is it destiny, generations in the making? An utterly charming – and a tiny big magical – play that connects across cultures.

Hanukkah Holiday by Rosalind Friedman (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 1w, 1m, 10 any gender)
Hanukkah Holiday features nine original songs that tell the exciting, touching, and timeless story of Hanukkah. While a teacher is relating the story to the children in her classroom, a student named Judah scoffs at the tale. Left alone to study and write a report, Little Judah is visited by a costumed Judah Macabee, who relates his deeds and sacrifices. This hero helps the past come alive, and Little Judah’s report is praised.

I Can Get It For You Wholesale by Harold Rome and Jerome Weidman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 4m)
Based on Jerome Weidman’s bestselling novel, this musical adaptation tells the story of an ambitious young businessman artfully clawing his way to the top of the garment industry in 1930s New York. With humor and frankness, the show explores the perils of ambition and the price of success. Contrasting the swinging, jazzy rhythms of big city business with the earthy, traditional sounds of the characters’ Eastern European origins, this touching musical captures the energy and promise of a pivotal time in Jewish American history.

If I Forget by Steven Levenson (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
In the final months before 9/11, liberal Jewish studies professor Michael Fischer has reunited with his two sisters to celebrate their father’s seventy-fifth birthday. Each deeply invested in their own version of family history, the siblings clash over everything from Michael’s controversial scholarly work to the mounting pressures of caring for an ailing parent. As destructive secrets and long-held resentments bubble to the surface, the three negotiate how much of the past they’re willing to sacrifice for a chance at a new beginning with biting humor and razor-sharp insight. This passionate and provoking play is a powerful tale of a family and a culture at odds with itself.

Indecent by Paula Vogel (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, this deeply moving play is inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance – a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. Indecent charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it.

Jewish Girlz by Elizabeth Swados (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 14w)
During a weekend retreat sponsored by two female rabbis, the atmosphere in a country log cabin evolves from shyness and contempt into a tell-all session among adolescent Jewish girls from all kinds of backgrounds. Stories and songs transcend stereotypes to find individuality, heart and humor and to touch on sensitive issues such as pressure, self-esteem and what it means to be a girl in modern society.

Kosher Lutherans by William Missouri Downs (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 2m)
Kosher Lutherans centers on Hanna and Franklyn, the seemingly perfect couple who desperately want to have a child of their own but are unable to do so… at least not without the help of a God-fearing pregnant girl from Iowa who offers to let the couple adopt her out-of-wedlock baby. Just before the adoption papers are signed, Hanna and Franklyn discover the girl is unaware that they are Jewish. Knowing the revelation could throw a ratchet into the whole works, the couple poses as Lutherans to appeal to the girl’s apparent Midwestern sensibilities. But how far are they willing to go to have a family?

Kuni Leml by Richard Engquist, Nahma Sandrow and Raphael Crystal (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 2w, 6m)
This gem garnered the Outer Critics’ Circle awards for Best Book, Best Music, Best Lyrics and Best Off-Broadway Musical. A tale of young lovers defying tradition – in this case the arranged match of the young heroine to the ultimate schlemiel – Kuni Leml is a classic Yiddish farce. A family musical with universal appeal, it is bright, modern and easy to produce.

Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 12w, 14m, 4 girls, 5 boys)
Spanning 50 years and multiple generations, this human and heartbreaking drama follows a Viennese Jewish family’s reckoning with a past it cannot escape and a future it cannot control. Stoppard’s epic yet intimate drama centers on Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptized Jew married to Catholic Gretl, whose extended family convene at their fashionable apartment on Christmas Day in 1899, and travels through the convulsions of war, impoverishment and the Holocaust, which stole the lives of 65,000 Austrian Jews alone. 

Letters to Sala by Arlene Hutton (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 12w, 4m)
Adapted from the book Sala’s Gift by Ann Kirschner based on a true account, Letters to Sala is a remarkable story of a young girl’s survival during wartime Germany. Sala Garncarz Kirschner kept her secret for over fifty years, concealing her incredibly painful history in a Spill and Spell box. Everything changes when Sala reveals the cache to her grown daughter, Ann. As Ann processes her own reaction to her mother’s story, her daughters, Caroline and Elisabeth, realize for the first time the weight of their Jewish heritage. In this stirring family portrait, three generations of Kirschner women must work together to sift through the past and come to terms with the true gravity of Sala’s letters.

My Left Breast by Susan Miller (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w)
“I am a one-breasted, menopausal, Jewish, bisexual lesbian Mom, and I’m coming soon to a theatre near you!” A woman’s humorous and moving encounters with relationships, parenthood, cancer, and her ever-changing self are charted in this searingly honest solo piece.

My Name is Asher Lev by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 2m)
Based on Chaim Potok’s novel of the same name, this deeply insightful play follows the journey of a young Jewish painter torn between his Hassidic upbringing and his desperate need to fulfill his artistic promise. When his artistic genius threatens to destroy his relationship with his parents and community, young Asher realizes he must make a difficult choice between art and faith. This stirring theatrical adaptation of a modern literary classic presents a heartbreaking and triumphant vision of what it means to be an artist.

New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656 by David Ives (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 5m)
Baruch de Spinoza is a young merchant and the heir apparent of Saul Mortera, the chief Rabbi of Amsterdam. But Amsterdam’s Sephardic Jews have made a fatal arrangement with the city: They have agreed to police their own community for unorthodox beliefs. When the city accuses Spinoza of atheism, Mortera must summon Baruch to the synagogue to defend himself. Spinoza’s best friend, his sister and the woman he loves are all drawn into the controversy, a historical event that shook up not only the entire Jewish community of Amsterdam, but changed Spinoza’s and Mortera’s lives – and all of Western thought – irrevocably. No written record survives of what was said at Temple Talmud Torah on July 27, 1656. In this eloquent and masterful drama, David Ives attempts to open the temple doors and let us listen in on a dispute whose philosophical and political echoes still reverberate today.

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story by Hannah Moscovitch, Ben Caplan and Christian Berry (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 1w, 2m)
Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story is a humorously dark folk tale woven together with a high-energy concert. This music/theatre hybrid, originally starring international Klezmer sensation Ben Caplan, is inspired by the true stories of Jewish Romanian refugees coming to Canada in 1908. It’s about how to love after being broken by the horrors of war. It’s about looking into the eyes of God.

Petticoat Lane by Judd Woldin (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 2w, 5m)
Freely adapted from Israel Zangwill’s delightful novella, Petticoat Lane takes place in the East End of London in the 18th century. The musical follows a young man with a working-class Ashkenazic heritage as he seeks to win the hand of a haughty Sephardic beggar’s daughter.

Prayer for the French Republic by Joshua Harmon (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 7m)
This multigenerational story follows a Jewish family over 70 years. The play begins with a couple in Paris, awaiting news of their missing family. Decades later, their great grandchildren are dealing with the same issues of safety and discrimination. Prayer for the French Republic is a sweeping look at history, home and the effects of an ancient hatred.

Rose Colored Glass by Sue Bigelow and Janice Goldberg (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w)
Set in 1938 Chicago, Rose Colored Glass takes place in the back rooms of Lady O’Riley’s pub and Rose Fleishman’s delicatessen. In a series of stunning flashbacks, Lady’s granddaughter remembers the moving story of how Lady and Rose formed a united front to fight American apathy in an attempt to bring Rose’s nephew out of Europe before the war. The show explores the beginning of the Holocaust from an American perspective, showing two remarkable women as they struggle with American apathy, immigration laws and bureaucracy, and their own prejudices… all in the name of one boy’s safe passage from Europe to America.

Stunning by David Adjmi (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 2m)
Lily is 16, married and living in a Sephardic Syrian-Jewish community in Brooklyn, in a city where most Jewish people are descended from Ashkenazi Europeans. With little exposure to the world beyond her community, she forms a bond with her Black maid, Blanche. Blanche changes Lily’s worldview, but at a price. Stunning explores the multicultural melting pot of America and the lives of the people within it.

Taller Than a Dwarf by Elaine May (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 5m)
Young Jewish couple Howard and Selma deal with the mundane stresses of a leaky shower and a citation for litter. Howard’s parents, mother-in-law and boss hilariously elevate his childish rebellion to Civil Disobedience worthy of Thoreau in this skewed comic version of an urban angst tale from veteran humorist Elaine May.

The Ally by Itamar Moses (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
Finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize. When a university professor is asked to sign a social justice manifesto, he expects to be able to do so without hesitation. Instead, he becomes embroiled in an increasingly conflicted web of relationships that challenge his commitments as a liberal, a husband, an academic, an American, an atheist and a Jew. With tensions at an all-time high, Asaf is forced to confront the age-old question: “If I am only for myself, what am I?”

The Berlin Diaries by Andrea Stolowitz (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 1m)
In this moving combination of docudrama and biography, Oregon Book Award-winning playwright Andrea Stolowitz retraces the path of her great-grandfather, Max, a German Jew who escaped to New York City in 1939. Though Max’s story was “verschollen,” or lost, Stolowitz uses his journal as a guide, winding her way across continents and decades in a moving combination of docudrama and biography in which two actors play 14 characters. A moving tribute to the familial bonds that survive even the most horrifying events.

The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 1m)
Three Jewish widows meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husbands’ graves. Ida is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life; Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun; and Doris is priggish and judgmental, particularly when Sam the butcher enters the scene. He meets the widows while visiting his wife’s grave.

The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne Frank began to keep a diary on June 14, 1942, two days after her 13th birthday and 22 days before going into hiding with her parents, sister and three other people. Hiding in the sealed-off upper rooms of the annex of her father’s office building in Amsterdam, Anne and the others cope with the day-to-day struggles of life in cramped quarters, as the spectre of tragedy looms, ever-present, over their every move. Also available in an updated version by Wendy Kesselman (US/UK) as well as a One-Act Version by Kesselman (US).

The Dreidel Players Present… Best Hanukkah Show Ever! by Jeremy Desmon and Victor Wishna (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 9 any gender)
A troupe of passionate (but not-quite-ready-for-prime-time) performers band together to create the greatest Hanukkah show there ever was…in just eight days! As the clock ticks and the candles burn, the Dreidel Players scramble to discover the true meaning of the season and bring a little more light into the world. The result is a hilarious series of joyful, latke-scented sketches and scenes about all things Hanukkah – delivered tongue-in-cheek and hand-on-heart.

The Goldman Project by Staci Swedeen (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 1m)
This bittersweet drama explores family relations, the lingering legacy of the Holocaust, and the catharsis of self-renewal. In 1994, Tony’s old college girlfriend Aviva interviews his mother Naomi for a Holocaust memorial project. When Naomi reveals a devastating secret, the consequences are life changing. 

The Haggadah by Elizabeth Swados (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 7w, 10m, 3 boys)
This “Passover oratorio” by the composer of Runaways is a disarmingly simple account of the birth and life of Moses, and of the Exodus, presented with masks and a clever use of puppetry.

The Immigrant by Steven M. Alper, Mark Harelik and Sarah Knapp (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 2m )
Based on the biographical story of the author’s grandfather, this musical tells the story of a young Jew who fled the pogroms of Czarist Russia in 1909 and pushed his banana cart into the tiny Baptist community of Hamilton, Texas. Given shelter by a childless older couple, he sent for his wife, raised a family, and made this town his home. A true story of parents and children, newcomers and natives, Christians and Jews, and the realization of the American Dream.

The Journals of Mihail Sebastian by David Auburn (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1m)
In the decadent, politically explosive Bucharest of the 1930s and 40s, a young writer struggles to maintain his career, his integrity and his Jewish identity as his closest friends ally themselves with Fascism. Based on the controversial journals of Mihail Sebastian himself, this epic one-man play by the Pulitzer and Tony-winning David Auburn spans eight tumultuous years and opens a uniquely personal window on the Romanian Holocaust and the Second World War.

The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 3m)
In 1939 Atlanta, Georgia, the social event of the season is Ballyhoo – a part-festival, part-ball for high society members. The Freitag family’s hopes are pinned on the last night of Ballyhoo, where the widow Boo is determined to have her dreamy yet awkward daughter Lala find a suitable husband. The family – including siblings and cousins – gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations in this play that was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize.

The Last Seder by Jennifer Maisel (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 6w, 5m)
In this gentle, comic drama, a family preparing for a big transition gathers for one last Seder. When it becomes clear that matriarch Lily Price can no longer care for her husband with Alzheimer’s, the Price’s four daughters – and their partners – return to their childhood home to prepare for a bittersweet future, and instead wind up fighting, divvying up keepsakes and reliving memories.

The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini and Ben Power (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3m)
Weaving together nearly two centuries of family history, this epic theatrical event charts the humble beginnings, outrageous successes and devastating failure of the financial institution that would ultimately bring the global economy to its knees.

The Lucky Star by Karen Hartman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 4m)
The discovery of a stash of letters stamped with swastikas opens clues to an untold family history spanning multiple generations in The Lucky Star – the gripping true story of resilience and truth-tracking determination spanning Baltimore and beyond. Richard Hollander’s book Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish Family’s Correspondence from Poland is brought to the stage in this mesmerizing new adaptation that restores a family’s uncharted legacy – celebrated by revelation and remembrance.

The Man-Child by Arnold Rabin (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 2m, 3 boys, 1 any gender)
This is the story of a boy’s coming of age as he anticipates the celebration of his Bar Mitzvah ceremony. After being given a precious family heirloom in the form of a golden ring, Allen is taunted by his friends, who try to convince him that the ring is not pure gold. They pressure him into biting the ring to test if it’s real, which he does, damaging the ring – and then he lies to his family, claiming the ring was damaged by accident. As the hour of the Bar Mitzvah approaches, it becomes apparent that Allen cannot achieve manhood with the lie in his heart.

The People in the Picture by Iris Rainer Dart, Mike Stoller and Artie Butler (US)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 5m)
Once the star of Yiddish musical films in Poland between the wars, Raisel is now a grandmother (Bubbie) in ’70s New York. Bubbie longs to tell the stories of her acting troupe’s successes and heroism to her granddaughter Jenny. However her daughter, Red, insists on leaving the past behind, unless Bubbie will talk about the events that have plagued them both since Red’s childhood. The soul-touching melodies paired with the humor and pathos of these characters in this musical will make audiences laugh, cry and ponder.

The Revisionist by Jesse Eisenberg (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 2m)
Inspired by a visit to Poland and an encounter with a second cousin who did not make it to America and weathered the Holocaust from Europe, this play by actor Jesse Eisenberg brings a personal reflection on the juxtaposition of the privilege of living a different life than your family. In the play, David arrives in Poland with a crippling case of writer’s block and a desire to be left alone. His seventy-five-year-old second cousin Maria welcomes him with a fervent need to connect with her distant American family. As their tenuous relationship develops, she reveals details about her complicated post-war past that test their ideas of what it means to be a family.

The Tenth Man by Paddy Chayefsky (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 1w, 12m)
This play tells the story of the unlikely meeting of strangers who come together at Temple meetings, all with different reasons for attending. One day, one of the men decides to bring his granddaughter who is in a trance, in the hopes that the minyan might save her. He believes she has been possessed by a dybbuk – a malicious spirit – and an exorcism is arranged by the rabbi. This 1959 work by one of the founders of television drama makes for a thrilling night out, complete with a shocking twist sure to thrill any audience.

The Wanderers by Anna Ziegler (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 2m)
Two marriages have seemingly little in common: Esther and Schmuli are Orthodox Jews navigating strictly defined rules and roles, while Sophie and Abe are secular and free to make their own choices. But both couples are growing apart as they strive to balance their individual identities with the families they’ve created. As Esther tests the boundaries of her personal freedom, Abe falls into a correspondence with a movie star that will shake the foundations of his marriage and career. Anna Ziegler’s funny, moving and thoughtful play asks if following one’s truth is worth it, no matter the cost.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2m)
Based on the book of the same name, this theatrical adaptation tells the autobiographical story of Mitch Albom, an accomplished journalist driven solely by his career, and Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor. Sixteen years after graduation, Mitch happens to catch Morrie’s appearance on a television news program and learns that his old professor is battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Mitch is reunited with Morrie, and what starts as a simple visit turns into a weekly pilgrimage and a last class in the meaning of life.

For more plays and musicals about tradition and family, visit the Concord Theatricals website in the US or UK.