Alex Edelman Theater Review.

Alex Edelman is a cross between a Woody Allen and Jeff Goldblum. His movements are somewhat fast paced and he comes of scattered when "kvetching" about his life.

I normally like Jewish humor, especially being a bi-product of the garment industry. Staples like Billy Crystal, Jackie Mason, Freddie Roman could all make me laugh. What Edelman does up on stage a lot is giggle at his own jokes, he has a nerdy look on life, almost ghoulishly so. He was that kid in school who probably kept himself entertained.

Last night Edelman told stories about where he grew up in Massachusetts, "the usual shtick"about the differences between Gentiles and Jews. It was here, about 30 to 40 minutes into the show that I actually laughed. In most Jewish comedians with the exception of Mason, they are secular in their beliefs. While Mason, who was a Rabbi, was able to bring the main fold into his show. Gentiles like Jews could laugh at his show. Edelman, a Sectarian, was not able to do the same thing. A lot of his jokes went over the secular people,(who were the dominate in the audience).

I have seen two comedic shows this year on Broadway: Mike Birbiglia and Edelman. Where Edelman's mentor brings high genuine energy to the show, Alex Edelman seems less sure of his act. He paces about trying to give himself gratification for his act as well as his life. In his 90 minute performance, he takes us to his "nerf Nazi meeting in Queens", he talks about his family hosting Christmas for a friend that lost her husband, his brother who represents Israel in Skeleton, a useless sport to him. The stories in the show aren't that bad, it's just that they aren't really exciting to hear.

As Alex Edelman tells us that empathy is the biggest part of his religion, he also tells us about his father, his profession and his mother. The father is clearly the best part of the show. His comedic timing here is probably the best part of the night. Still, compared to the greats, and even relatively upstarts like Mike Birbiglia, he has a long way to go to get in the big leagues!

Adam Brace and Alex Timbers as director and creative consultant should have been more mindful as to what works in comedy. Even though Edelman has played different countries, he was better off Broadway last year. I am not so sure that this is Broadway quality. Many of the audience members seemed to be laughing out of kindness, others genuinely liked his routine.

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The Cottage

Last week I had written my review of "The Cottage" for the papers and magazines that I write for. Although I liked The Cottage, I thought that Lili Cooper was miscast and I thought Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) tried to hard for the over- the- top laughs.

In my WIX post (read the whole review there), I thought the accents for the most part were excellent, a new writer did a very good job writing the play, and for the most part it was enjoyable.

The play is based on two brothers who have affairs with each others wife. One of the brothers has another mistress to go with his mistress! The cottage is the mothers who is not in good health. Cigarettes and drinks seem to pop out everywhere, which was part of the charm of the play.

The bantering, what comes next fun is reason alone to see this fun time at the Helen Hayes Theatre. It is also great to see new writings on Broadway as this year seems to be filled with classics gone modern.