Off-B'way Review: Birthright; A Walk on the Moon

Zoe Winters, Eli Gelb, Molly Ranson, Nate Mann,
and Hale Appleman in Birthright.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Two new Off-Broadway shows deal with Jewish characters. One deeply examines the complexities of Jewish identity while the other is a shallow musical treatment of familiar tropes combining a few acceptable songs with a tired plot. Jonathan Spector’s Birthright at MCC Theater is an overwhelming wallop of a play, encompassing America’s frayed relationship with Israel as well as the individual struggle to reconcile religious affiliation with personal ethics. Pamela Gray and AnnMarie Milazzo’s A Walk on the Moon, based on Gray’s 1999 screenplay, at the Laura Pels after productions at New York Stage and Film and the George Street Playhouse, is more like a walk in the park—a familiar, not unpleasant, but not particularly exciting park. 

As he did with the vaccine controversy in Eureka Day, Spector skillfully presents multiple sides of a difficult issue in Birthright. No one is a hero or a villain, the characters are just of a group of people muddling their way through the confusion of modern life. Running at three hours and 20 minutes, the play covers 18 crucial years, 2006 to 2024, in the lives of six young Jewish friends. Director Teddy Bergman miraculously keeps the action flowing so that those three hours never drag. Each of the three acts takes place during a reunion after their trip to Israel sponsored by the titular organization to encourage American Jews to explore their connections with the homeland. As the conflict between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration and the Palestinians metastasizes, each of the group differently deals with their raging reactions and their own sense of Judaism.

Eli Gelb and Zoe Winters
in Birthright.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

In Act One, subtitled “Two Jews, Three Opinions,” the sextet wrestles with the implications of their recent trip and their personal and political entanglements with Israel and each other as they start lives outside of college and family. The continuous action takes place at the home of Chaya’s parents in a Washington DC suburb, though we only meet Chaya’s mom. Scott Pask designed the handsome set. Act Two (“A Palace in Time”), set ten years later, is a series of brief, fractured scenes on the night before the wedding and move to Israel of Alona (fragile yet ultimately strong Molly Ranson). In Act Three (“Right of Return”), the group is reunited by tragedy and split by Hamas’ terrorist massacre and Israel’s retaliatory war on Gaza. Here, as he did in Eureka Day, Spector incorporates text messages and Google searches projected onto Pask’s set. Bergman cleverly stages these scenes with Natasha Katz’s evocative lighting focusing on the reader of the digital messages with the rest of the cast in darkness and sounding like they’re underwater. David Bengali created the imaginative projections. 

Not only does Spector portray the personae’s tortured connections to their faith and culture, but also explores such weighty topics as the course of Jewish history, the changing means of communication, the coarsening of political dialogue and the meaning of community. 

Molly Bernard, Zoe Winters, and 
Molly Ranson in Birthright.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

The magnificent cast endows their characters with a plethora of motivations, beliefs, and attractions. In addition to the aforementioned Ranson as Alona, there’s brittle, intense Chaya (a fiercely frantic and funny Zoe Winters) who bounces from man to man as she navigates the treacherous waters of politics and social justice. Fiery, lesbian Izzy (flinty Molly Bernard) similarly attempts to make a difference in public life but comes to very different conclusions. Hale Appleman conveys Lev’s manic mood swings. Nate Mann believably limns the hedonistic rock musician Emerson’s unexpected change and Eli Gelb is touching as the blogger Noah who harbors a not-so-secret crush on Chaya. Liz Larsen makes the most of the supporting role of Chaya’s chatty but compassionate mom Deborah.  

In an endlessly thought-provoking evening, the most affecting moment comes near the end of Act Three when a devastated Alona explains her conflicted emotions. Torn between loyalty to Israel and repulsion at the government’s more extreme actions, Alona attempts to describe the battlefield of her heart. It’s a sobering and harrowing conclusion to a smart, challenging play.

The cast of A Walk on the Moon.
Credit: Joan Marcus

While Birthright explosively explores the many sides of being Jewish, A Walk on the Moon has its characters utter a few Yiddish phrases and perform stereotypical activities like playing Mahjong and cooking briskets, but doesn’t delve deeply into Jewish identity. Set during the summer of 1969 at an upstate New York bungalow colony with a Jewish clientele, the musical version of the 1999 film focuses on housewife Pearl Kantrowitz who expresses dissatisfaction with her domestic duties and launches an affair with a free-spirited salesman. The moon landing and Woodstock festival serve as a backdrop to Pearl’s rebellion against her conventional marriage. 

Talia Suskauer tries her level best to bring depth to Pearl’s plight as do Max Chernin as her humdrum hubby and Sam Gravitte as her flashier, sexier lover. Andrea Burns finds humor in the mother-in-law and Sophie Pollono manages to keep the adolescent daughter bearable.   

Talia Suskauer and Sam Gravitte in
A Walk on the Moon.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Pamela Gray’s book is even more cliched than her screenplay. AnnMarie Milazzo’s score (with additional lyrics by Gray) has some enjoyable tunes, especially when she pays tribute to artists of the era such as Joni Mitchell. There is one surprising, inventive number. After the first act concludes with Pearl schtupping the salesman, the second act opens with a comedy song. Pearl tries balancing her giddiness over her affair with taking care of the kids and the suspicions of her perceptive mother-in-law. The lyrics are funny and the music is jaunty. Director Sheryl Kaller stages the song inventively with Pearl turning her bland laundry inside out to reveal a tye-dyed rainbow, complimented by Robert Wierzel’s psychedelic lighting. Here the authors and director are taking a chance, going an unexpected route. Too bad the rest of the show is so routine.   

Birthright: June 24—July 26. MCC Theater, 511 W. 52nd St., NYC. Running time: three hours and 20 mins. including two intermissions. mcctheater.org.

A Walk on the Moon: June 29—Aug. 22. Laura Pels Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater,111 W. 46th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. criterionticketing.com.