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Bad Girls: Burlesque Show Puts Jewish Women in the Spotlight
BAGEL BEAUTIES: Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad blend singing, dancing, and stand-up comedy.
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More in Arts & CultureJewish burlesque seems, in a way, only natural. Sex and humor are inextricably bound in Jewish culture (or at least in certain precincts of it); potty-mouthed, voluptuous women are celebrated. The burlesque tradition took root in the Yiddish theater nearly a century ago when Jewish thespians, not content to be restrained by a single medium, decided that their plays would include a bit of everything: song and dance, sentimentality and comedy, romance and raunchiness. This is precisely the logic employed by the burlesque troupe Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad, which performed a three-week run this month at The Zipper Factory, a funky off-Broadway theater in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen.
The Zipper Factory, one of the few off-Broadway theaters that maintains a full bar in its lobby, is the perfect venue for NJGGB. The evening’s vibe — one of communion and cleavage — was set pre-show. Performers and audience members alike congregated at the bar and drank He’Brew beer, while one of the show’s dancers, an Amy Winehouse look-alike but with fake tattoos instead of real ones, warmed up on a stripper pole in the corner.
NJGGB is the brainchild of actress/songstress/comedian Susannah Perlman, a buxom 30-something with a seasoned performer’s command of the stage. She started the group five years ago because, as she explained in her opening monologue, there’s “no shortage of Jewish women going: ‘Look at me! Look at me!’” The show’s humor is often local (“I’m glad I flier-ed [the ultra Orthodox enclave of] Boro Park”). To be a Jewish insider in New York, it seems, is also
to be a New York insider. This was fine with the audience, filled primarily with 20- to 30-year-old New York Jews, but one wonders how the material plays in other cities. A later act, Rena Zager, riffed on the differences between Manhattanites and Brooklynites — a Jewish twist on the African American “How black people are different from white people” routine.
The show — five parts standup comedy, two parts bawdy song and dance — puts a new spin on familiar themes. These are modern Jewish women who spend time not only looking for husbands on JDate but also looking for booty on Craigslist. “You get dinner on JDate and laid on Craigslist,” Perlman explained to a nodding, knowing audience.
Other recurring motifs included common Jewish physical attributes (Mindy Raf, who came off as a more mature Sarah Silverman, described her uni-brow as a “Jewni-brow”) and the loquaciousness of the Jewish people (Zager: “Jews are like an emotional weather channel — reports every 10 minutes”).
Mixed in between the standup acts were song-and-dance routines that were often led by Perlman, who made more costume changes than Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards. At one point, Perlman emerged wearing a shiny, blue, low-cut, one-piece pantsuit that looked like it was left over from a 1970s Jewish-singles roller-disco. “I’m bringing camel-toe back!” Perlman proclaimed before launching into a routine involving spinning dancers dressed as dreidels.
Perlman has deep roots in the Yiddish stage — her ancestors were prewar players in Romania — and so she clearly understands the dynamism necessary in building an effective Vaudevillian show. There were a few near misses, such as an un-ironic poetry slam that seemed to belong in another show, but most of the acts gelled nicely. One dance number, a “Fiddler on the Roof” parody, involved stripping Hasidim wearing Star of David pasties beneath their tefillin; another was a song called “What’s in Gefilte Fish?” in which Perlman offered audience members spoonfuls of canned gefilte fish and declared, “It’s ‘Fear Factor’ for Jews.”
The show’s high point arrived toward the evening’s close, when Second City alum Rebecca Drysdale emerged in a red wool Santa-and-Rudolph cardigan and launched into a pitch-perfect monologue that parodied a bat mitzvah speech. Drysdale kept a remarkably straight face as she hit each note like the wobbly-voiced adolescent that she must have been. “The Torah portion I read today,” she deadpanned, “means as much to me in English as it does in the original Hebrew.” She closed her performance with an “American Idol” auditions-worthy rendering of the opening of her Haftorah, before announcing to the congregation, “Now would everyone stand for no reason.” Some audience members chose to rise — but out of appreciation rather than obligation.
The show closed with the entire cast forming a chorus line and singing songs: a Yiddish drinking song and some Hebrew school classics. Audience members were encouraged to sing along, and many could be seen mouthing the Yiddish and Hebrew words. The finale seemed to embody thespirit of the evening — a coming together of young Jews, unsure of their place in Jewish culture but having a lot of fun figuring it out.
Adam Wilson is a writer living in New York. He mainly writes about Jews and sex.
Comments
How can I get the DVD???
"involved stripping Hasidim wearing Star of David pasties beneath their tefillin; "
I'm so glad I wasn't there.
"Sex and humor are inextricably bound in Jewish culture (or at least in certain precincts of it); potty-mouthed, voluptuous women are celebrated." "The burlesque tradition took root in the Yiddish theater nearly a century ago..."
Yes, I would agree that sexual raunchiness and Jewish culture go hand in hand. Degeneracy and ribaldry, as portrayed in Jewish burlesque is also one of your major contributions to the world. I can't disagree. What I don't understand completely is the pride many Jews seem to take in this historical fact.
mein dear misteh Hollingsworth,
a sheygutz is a sheygutz is a sheygutz....
I don't quite buy this 'A later act, Rena Zager, riffed on the differences between Manhattanites and Brooklynites — a Jewish twist on the African American “How black people are different from white people” routine.' because this sounds more like a Jewish twist on the five boroughs feuds which provided the basis for hip hop - notably the one between krs-one (south bronx) and marley marl & m.c. shan (queen's bridge) which gave rise to a whole cycle of really good songs full of rough humor and abuse.
These disgusting [word deleted]s don't represent real Jewish women like my mother, grandmothers, aunts. Jeiwsh females were known to be modest, respectful, proper women. This show is a disgrace! Please, Hollingsworth, don't confuse these women as representing the norm in Jewish culture. The majority of Jews around the world aren't crude, amoral and promiscious. This story only shows a very liberal secular Jewish segment. In fact some of these women are products of intermarriage and don't have much Jewish education. They don't represent real Jewish women.
"These disgusting [word deleted]s don't represent real Jewish women like my mother, grandmothers, aunts. Jewish females were known to be modest, respectful, proper women. This show is a disgrace! Please, Hollingsworth, don't confuse these women as representing the norm in Jewish culture."
Give me a break. Jews don't post comments sucking up to Nazis. I wouldn't be surprised if "Zionist" were merely a sock puppet for the previous commentator, Rowan Berkeley, a habitual anti-Semitic guest on this website seeking to sow the discord he evidently thinks is funny, to judge by his comment. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Hollingsworth, Berkeley (nice choice of name, given the state of activism on that campus), and "Zionist" were all the same person. The strategy of "divide and conquer" is an old one, and according to the rabbis, who thereby provide moral instruction, we lost the Second Temple on account of our fractiousness. The Romans are no more; the Jews are yet here to celebrate. Let's stay united and not let taunts of "degeneracy" (a favorite word of Hitler's, often prefaced by "Jewish") ruin our game. Shalom aleinu, v'al kol Yisrael.
Besides, anyone who thinks his Jewish mother is a virgin is a fruitcake.
I love it. Even if i find it offensive, it's a breath of fresh air in an age where everyone seems afraid to say anything that anyone might disagree with. I would say , (with all prerequisite humbleness) that you need me to be a contributing writer. haha Happy New Year!!!!!
I'm attacked and compared to Nazis because I defend the honor of Jewish women? What a joke! Brad's, A Goy name, mother is probably a shiksa because he thinks all Jewish women are loose and crude. I'm 100% Jewish who loves Jewish women. I will fight anyone who degrades them. I doubt you've ever met real jewish women. I've never heard of Hollingsworth or Rowena but if they're Nazis I would never even direct my comments toward them unless it was for a n argument. Women aren't either virgins or tramps, there's a happy medium. You're the one that has the problem Brad.
Lovers and Haters of NJGGB:
Come check us out at the Zipper and see for yourselves. We are coming back for more.
Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad - the chosen chicks –badass balabustehs of comedy, music and burlesque - return to The Zipper Factory Theater (337 West 37thth and 9th Avenues) Street, between 8 for eight new shows this spring.
Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad opened at The Zipper last December to rave reviews - and now they are back for more. This rendition of mishagas on wheels features new songs (“The Filthiest Song About Hamantaschen”) and comics, as well as old favorites like the Hasidic Strip, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen Remixed” and the mystery of Judaism solved: “What’s in Gefilte Fish?” (it's “Fear Factor” for Jews!). This time around East Coast meets West Coast as the LA and NYC Comics face off in the NJGGB version of “You Got Served.”
Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad will play Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. from March 8 through April 26. Tickets, priced at $25, are now available through OvationTix at 212-352-3101, or online at www.thezipperfactory.com.
BTW Zionist,
10 years of religious school 10 years of Jewish Camp I regularly attend and belong to a synagogue I am very active in the Jewish community in NYC
oh, and both of my parents are Jewish
in your face with that assumption
MY WIFE AND I WOULD HAVE ENJOYED THIS SHOW BUT WE DID NOT KNOW ABOUT IT. WERE IT NOT FOR E-MAIL I JUST RECEIVED FROM A FRIEND IN SAN FRANCISCO, I WOULD STILL NOT KNOW. PLEASE PUT US ON A LIST THAT WOULD LET US KNOW ABOUT EVERY EVENT. ERVIN DRAKE