Alex Edelman's JUST FOR US Extends at The Mark Taper Forum

Alex Edelman's “Just For Us” has been extended at the Mark Taper Forum for six performances only December 19 to 23.  Tickets are now on sale at the link below.  The original engagement, now sold out, continues through November 26.
 
Expertly crafted by one of comedy's most distinctive voices, this singular theatrical experience written and performed by Edelman, and directed by Adam Brace, is an exploration of identity and our collective capacity for empathy.  Amanda Callas in Broadway World said, “This is must-see, hilarious stand up tackling identity and anti-Semitism, and it is hard to think of a more essential show at the moment.”
 
In the wake of a string of anti-Semitic rhetoric pointed in his direction online, stand-up comic Edelman decides to go straight to the source; specifically, Queens, where he covertly attends a meeting of White Nationalists and comes face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards. What happens next forms the backbone of the shockingly relevant, utterly hilarious, and only moderately perspirant stories that comprise “Just For Us.”
 
“As a Los Angeles resident,” said Edelman, “it's special that I get to do this show in the place where it was incubated. I performed the show in public for the first time at a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant, Âu Lạc LA, just a two minute walk away from the Taper. And so to be able to elevate the show from that little café space to the best performing space in Los Angeles is really beautiful to me.”
 
About the show, Edelman said, “The conversation about Jewish identity in the United States doesn't always take into account that not everything's a binary—like black, white, Jewish, not Jewish, rich, poor, oppressor, oppressed. And so that gray area between is really appealing to me. That's why I wanted to explore it. And that exploration has been really gratifying.”
 
“I speak to anyone who wants to speak to me after the show and those conversations have informed the show,” Edelman continued. “I love being in literal dialogue with the audience and the world around me. I think it's an essential part of making something that's sort of a living, breathing organism. I feel like that's also a very Jewish thing: We love asking questions. We love debating. We love talking.”
 
“It's a mitzvah this show has moved to Broadway!” said Raven Snook in Time Out New York.  “Edelman deftly interweaves disparate tales about his Israeli Olympian brother, an unkosher Christmas, Jared Kushner and religion-based vaccine hesitancy into a portrait of the entertainer as a young Jewish man in a polarized society. But he does this without pulling any punchlines: The laughs are plentiful.”
 
Jason Zinoman wrote in The New York Times, “During the pandemic, ‘Just For Us,' a thoughtful, punchline-dense comedy, skipped past downtown hit into the rarefied air of cultural phenomenon. I knew it made the zeitgeist when friends not especially interested in comedy approached me wanting to talk about it.”
 
“Edelman isn't looking back at the past but toward the identity politics of the moment,” Zinoman continued. “One reason ‘Just For Us' has resonated with audiences is that it's one of the few new shows to dig into the relationship between Jews and whiteness. ‘Growing up I always wanted to be white,' Edelman says in the show. This gets a laugh because he presents as white, but not all groups see him that way, which he called ‘almost a founding tension' of the show.”
 
Greg Evans said in Deadline Hollywood, “A raconteur who's honed this material to a flawless conversational eloquence, Edelman has a remarkable ability to walk right up to the abyss, peer in and walk away with jokes to tell – jokes that neither diminish nor romanticize what he's seen. Among the teachings of his Jewish upbringing is empathy, and even sitting outnumbered in that racist, antisemitic gathering he struggles to remain true to those values. That struggle provides Edelman with a mighty intellectual conundrum, a worthy and funny debate of the heart and a show that can stand proud on Broadway.”
 
Tickets for the six extension performances of Alex Edelman's “Just For Us” are available through CenterTheatreGroup.org, Audience Services at (213) 972-4400 or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Offices (at the Ahmanson Theatre) at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012. 
 
Center Theatre Group, one of the nation's preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles' leading not-for-profit theatre company, which, under the leadership of Artistic Director Snehal Desai, Managing Director / CEO Meghan Pressman, and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker, programs seasons at the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the country's leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics, and circumstances to serve Los Angeles. Center Theatre Group has produced more than 700 productions across its three stages, including such iconic shows as Zoot Suit; Angels in America; The Kentucky Cycle; Biloxi Blues; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Children of a Lesser God; Curtains; The Drowsy Chaperone; 9 to 5: The Musical; and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. CenterTheatreGroup.org
 
Bank of America is Center Theatre Group's 2023 – 2024 Ahmanson Season Sponsor. Bank of America believes in the power of the arts to help economies thrive, to educate and enrich societies, and to create greater cultural understanding. For more than 20 years, the company has supported Center Theatre Group's innovative Education and Community Partnerships programs as well as world-class productions. Bank of America is also an instrumental supporter in accelerating Center Theatre Group's commitment to becoming an anti-racist, equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization.
 
American Express is the official credit card for Center Theatre Group and the presenting sponsor of the Digital Stage.
 

BIOGRAPHIES
 

Alex Edelman is a comedian, actor, and writer. He is known for his TV writing, his love of black-and-white cookies, and his solo shows - all created in collaboration with director Adam Brace and all award-winning, sell-out hits in London's West End and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Alex made his Broadway debut with “Just For Us” in 2023, after sold-out runs Off-Broadway (Obie Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), in Washington DC, Boston (his hometown), Melbourne, Edinburgh (Herald Angel Award), London and more. His first solo show, “Millennial,” won the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer, the first American show to do so since 1997. He has appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "Late Night with Seth Meyers," and “Conan." He is also the creator of “Peer Group” – a show about young people – on BBC Radio 4. At the start of the pandemic, he served as the head writer and executive producer of “Saturday Night Seder,” a star-studded 70-minute special posted on YouTube that has so far raised $3.5 million for the CDC Foundation (COVID-19) Emergency Response Fund. He has two differently-sized feet and is very grateful you're here. 
 
Adam Brace (Director) was Associate Director at Soho Theatre, London where he worked across Comedy, Theatre and Performance Art, and in roles spanning dramaturg, director and writer. In comedy, he developed a varied range of work including eight Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated shows, two Herald Angel Award-winners, two nominees for the Melbourne Barry Award and two Southbank Sky Arts Awards. Directing credits include all of Alex Edelman's shows, most recently “Just For Us” (2023 Obie Award winner, 2022 Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Nominee); Liz Kingman's “One Woman Show” and Leo Reich's “Literally Who Cares?!” Off-Broadway, Haley McGee's “Age is a Feeling” (Fringe First 2022, Soho Theatre); all of Sh!t Theatre's multi-award-winning international shows. Other credits include Ahir Shah's HBO Max special “Dots” and Creative Supervisor on two series of “Soho Theatre Live” on Amazon Prime. Previously, he was a playwright and was produced by Almeida Theatre, The National Theatre and The Donmar Warehouse; his plays are published by Faber and Faber.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

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