‘The Wanderers’ is best new play of the season

‘THE WANDERERS’: Eddie Kaye Thomas & Sarah Cooper. Photo: Joan Marcus.

THE WANDERERS
Written by Anna Ziegler
Directed by Barry Edelstein
Through April 2, 2023
Laura Pels Theatre
111 West 46th Street
(212-719-1300), www.RoundaboutTheatre.org

By David NouNou

The Wanderers is one of the season’s best new plays, on or off Broadway. Although the themes about relationships and the narrative are universal, it would help if audience members are Jewish (or know some common Jewish phrases) to appreciate the beautifully textured and nuanced Hebrew and Yiddish sayings, both of which can only be spoken and used in its original context.  However, the show has broad appeal and you don’t have to be Jewish to truly appreciate what a beautiful story it is, with outstanding performances by the cast.

There is a lot to process here. Starting with a Hassidic marriage where the groom, Schmuli (Dave Klasko) is embedded in the strict regimentation of the religion, while the bride, Esther (Lucy Freyer) is more worldly due to her reading of books and breaking the rules of how a Hassidic woman should behave. This marriage produces two daughters and a son, Abraham.

Abe (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author married to Sophie (Sarah Cooper), a frustrated and unsuccessful writer raising two children of their own. They grew up together, almost at birth. Abe’s mother, Esther was best friends with Sophie’s mom Rivka who had married a Black man from Mississippi and had been ostracized from the Hassidic community. Sophie was like Esther’s adopted daughter, Esther pushed for their marriage that she deemed it be basherts, the Yiddish word meaning “destined to be.”

The fifth character is the stunning Julia Cheever (Katie Holmes), a world-renowned actress who attended one of Abe’s seminars and is infatuated by his prose. She sends him an email explaining her admiration, and needless to say Julia represents the ideal shiksa for Abe. This starts an 18-month email correspondence that consumes Abe.

No more can be said, because once this groundwork is in place, the viewer has to navigate through the maze of intricacies playwright Anna Ziegler has created. Whether it is marriage, religion, infidelity, guilt, raising children, success or failure, ostracism or death, reality vs. fantasy, Ms. Ziegler has woven this play like a tapestry that has to be appreciated from every angle for every detail.

The ensemble performances by all are exceptional and gut wrenching. Eddie Kaye Thomas, as Abe, known for his role of Paul Finch in the 1999 – 2012 American Pie movies, the seducer of Stifler’s mother (Jennifer Coolidge), is excellent in this adult role. He shows depth and all the angst of midlife crises. No less effective are newcomers Sarah Cooper, Lucy Fryer and Dave Klasko.

The main attraction to the show is Katie Holmes as the elusive Julia Cheever. Ms. Holmes is nothing short of breathtaking from her first entrance in the gorgeous crème-colored outfit designed by David Israel Reynoso to her final navy-blue pantsuit, she exemplifies the ideal woman men fantasize about. She has so matured and is much more self-assured since her 2008 Broadway debut in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.

Kudos should be given to director Barry Edelstein for navigating his cast through this human maze of human relations and emotions intersecting the past and the present. Ms. Ziegler and Mr. Edelstein have provided theatregoers one of the most absorbing must-see plays of this season.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 24, 2023
Reviewed at February 23, 2023 performance.

‘THE WANDERERS’: Lucy Freyer & Dave Klasko. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE WANDERERS’: Eddie Kaye Thomas & Katie Holmes. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE WANDERERS’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.