'Jewtopia' - shtick, stereotypes and all

The film rehashes familiar territory: Jews are loud, overbearing and uninhibited, and the goyim can’t get enough of it.

During the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, or MarCheshvan, [Bitter Cheshvan] there are no Jewish holidays. Jvillage Network, therefore, will be printing articles relating to Jewish Arts.

By Malina Saval for Haaretz

What do Chinese waitresses, vaginoplasty and hunting rifles have in common? They all figure into plot points in "Jewtopia," a romantic comedy in which a Jew helps his gentile friend pretend to be a member of the tribe so he can land the local rabbi's hot daughter.

The film is loosely based on writer-director-producer Bryan Fogel's hit off-Broadway play of the same name (both were cowritten by Sam Wolfson). The cinematic version draws on the play's general premise — Jewish guy who likes to chase Asian skirts pimps out gentile best friend on JDate — but with some twists. Here the gentile blue-collar laborer wants the sassy, confident Jewish girl while the neurotic nebbish with a toehold in the family embroidery business feels suffocated by his pushy Jewish fiancée, a top-rated gynecologist.

“In the movie, we realized the JDate thing is done, that dressing up as a Hasidic Jew and all this absurdist comedy that worked so well on the stage, as a movie would be a farce,” explains Fogel, who starred in the original stage version but preferred to stay behind the camera for the film. “About 20 percent of the play is the movie, and the rest was a reimagining of how to take that concept and the cultural aspect and turn it into something that would work for the big screen.”

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