OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES Comes to Trinity Rep Tonight

The off-Broadway hit show OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES comes to Providence for a limited run in the Chace Theatre at Trinity Rep, and is sure to make audiences laugh 'til they plotz. Performances run tonight, April 15, 2015 - May 10, 2015.

Co-created by Peter Gethers and Daniel Okrent, OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES is directed by Matt Silva and showcases five local actors in a revue that pays tribute to and reinvents classic jokes of the past and present. Think you've heard them all before? Not this way. The show also features comic songs -- brand new and satisfyingly old - as well as tributes to some of the giants of the comedy world and to the brilliant raconteurs from OldJewsTellingJokes.com, the website that inspired the show. If you've ever had a mother, visited a doctor, or walked into a bar with a priest, a rabbi and a frog - OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES will sit in the dark, give you a second opinion, and ask you where you got that.

The show The New York Times called "Hilarious...Magnificent, Enduring Rhythm of Jewish Humor" promises to be an outrageous evening of one-liners, double-entendres and hysterical routines sure to triple you over with laughter! Like rye bread, kosher pickles and bagels, this show is for everyone! (However, there is some Adult material recommended for 17+.)

The Providence production, directed by Matt Silva, features a talented and hilarious cast of actors including David Samuel (Nathan), Jude Flannelly (Reuben), Sharon Geller (Bunny), Christine Petrini (Debbie) and Bobby Green (Morty). The cast of five actors/singers include young and old, Jewish & Non Jewish talent, all of which makes the point that you don't have to be Jewish to love this show.

Daniel Okrent is a writer and editor, and best known for having served as the first public editor of The New York Times. He also invented Rotisserie League Baseball, and wrote several books, including Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, which served as a major source for the 2011 Ken Burns/Lynn Novick miniseries "Prohibition." Most of his career has been spent as an editor, at such places as Alfred A. Knopf and TIME, Inc. His book Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center was a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize in history.

Peter Gethers is President of Random House Films as well as an editor and publisher at Random House, Inc., a screenwriter, television writer and producer, novelist, and non-fiction author of the bestselling trilogy about his Scottish Fold cat Norton: The Cat Who Went to Paris, A Cat Abroad and The Cat Who'll Live Forever. He too is a founding member of the Rotisserie Baseball League, the 1980 group that started the fantasy sports craze.

Matt Silva (Director) is a freelance director based in Philadelphia. Matt holds an MA in Theatre from Villanova University and an MFA in Directing from Florida State University. In addition to directing the successful production of Old Jews Telling Jokes in Philadelphia, a few of Matt's favorite directing credits include: Hotel Suite, Rounding Third, The Love of the Nightingale, Crimes of the Heart, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dream Coat (for which he received a Barrymore nomination for Best Director of a musical). In addition to his freelance work, Matt is the Director of Dramatics at The Philadelphia Cristo Rey High School and is the Assistant Director at St. Joe's Prep, his beloved alma mater.

Old Jews Telling Jokes is produced by Dana Matthow and Philip Roger Roy of Playhouse Productions, Inc. Last spring, they brought My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm In Therapy! to Trinity Rep's Chace Theater. They are also producing the Nora Ephron hit "dramedy" Love, Loss & What I Wore! in San Diego, You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up! on tour and the one man musical Gefilte Fish & Chips in California.

To post a comment, you must register and login.