Review Theatre: Hetty Feinstein's Wedding Anniversary | New End Theatre | Old Jewish couples | kvelling | kbitzing

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The Review - THEATRE by JOSH LOEB
Published: 29 October 2009

Sue Kelvin

Yiddish and pomp make a Fein pair

HETTY FEINSTEIN'S WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
New End Theatre

IF ever there were a moratorium on staging light comedies about old Jewish couples, the New End Theatre would be in trouble.
The minutiae of domestic Jewish life, with its kvelling, kibitzing and tsouris, is this theatre’s schtick.
If nothing else, the New End knows its audience. Or does it? The plays are invariably about Jews in America (would it kill them to stage something about British Jews?), and they are almost always about people over the age of 50, who say things like “you old schemiel”. Does this reflect reality, or just caricatures? And would it be asking too much to have something more challenging than a middle-of-the-road comedy once in a while?
But enough kvetching. Hetty Feinstein’s Wedding Anniversary is a perfectly enjoyable show. A musical inspired by the pomp of Irving Berlin and other great American songwriters, it concerns Hetty Feinstein (Sue Kelvin, a national treasure and an old hand at playing indomitable Jewish matriarchs) and her optometrist husband Harry (the fabulous David Burt). They are happily – or at least securely – married, and are fast approaching their 30th anniversary.
But oy, they’ve got problems! Harry is bankrupt. His mother is dying. His twin brother (also played by Burt) is a philanderering criminal. And they are intermittently mourning the death of their son.
There’s plenty of humour in the brassy songs. When Hetty comes back from a shopping trip, Harry declares: “New shoes! How many feet ya got?” As Hetty draws up the list of invitees to their anniversary party, Harry protests that she can’t invite both his uncle and his cousin as they’ll quarrel.
“That’s what family’s about,” replies Hetty. “People who don’t like each other getting together to do stuff they don’t want to do.”
Like a bowl of kneidlach on Friday night, this show inspires contradictory emotions, simultaneously warming one’s heart with its homely familiarity while remaining predictable and a tad too bland.
Until December 6
0870 033 2733

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