“Indecent” was originally produced by Yale Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse, where I reviewed it in 2015 before the work reached its pinnacle form on Broadway in 2017.

Reverent toward the Yiddish world that was lost, the play subtly connects the challenges Asch and his traveling company face (the plight of vulnerable immigrants, the perniciousness of anti-Semitism, the insidious dynamic between censorship and intolerance) to flashpoints today.

Her sweeping synthesis is sensitive, balanced and enlightening. Vogel is “queering” history in “Indecent” - in other words, reading the past through an LGBTQ lens. Richard Topol reprises his Broadway performance as Lemml, the stage manager, a cousin of Thornton Wilder’s similarly designated character in “Our Town.” But Lemml isn’t simply the de facto narrator of “Indecent.” He also serves as the actual stage manager of “God of Vengeance” as it wends its way across Europe and eventually to New York, where, after becoming a hit downtown, it is moved to Broadway in a bastardized form that cuts the scene of lesbian tenderness but nonetheless affronts those eager to be affronted. Paula Vogel attends a dress rehearsal of her play “Indecent” at the Ahmanson Theatre. The choreography by David Dorfman allows the actors to scamper across geography and chronology with grace even when the condensed storytelling gets jumbled. The elegiac score by Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva is redolent with the buoyant melancholy of klezmer.

These musicians interweave themselves in the stage action of a play that behaves more like a musical - or music drama, to be more precise. The performers playing the cast members of “God of Vengeance” play a variety of other roles in “Indecent.” As they rise from their seats, ash pours from their sleeves as though they are being granted, through the miracle of theater, an opportunity to resurrect themselves from the ash heap of history.įour of the seven cast members and two of three musicians were in the original Broadway production. Under a projection of the play’s title in English and Yiddish are the words “the true story of a little Jewish play.” This production isn’t as sharp as the Broadway original, but the epic narrative derived from the history of Asch’s play is hauntingly captivating all the same.Īs theatergoers enter the Ahmanson, they’ll see a troupe of actors already seated on the stage in overcoats with suitcases at their sides. Taichman won a Tony for her direction of “Indecent,” which is as much a performance work as a scripted drama - an exemplary marriage, if you will, between writer and auteur.

Broadway indecent