Angie is Italian-American and single; Seth is a divorced Orthodox Jew. She lives in apartment 4C; he is down the hall in 4J. She’s a curator at a Chelsea gallery; he runs a knish shop on the Lower East Side. She finds inspiration at the Metropolitan Museum; he translates an obscure Yiddish writer for fun.
You’ve guessed it: We are in a romantic comedy, “The Sabbath Girl,” and its protagonists are fated to be mated, as Cole Porter put it back in 1957 (some things never change). But while it is refreshing to see the young writer Cary Gitter unabashedly dive into a genre as rare onstage as it is popular onscreen, his play, at 59E59 Theaters, can’t escape the clichés and clunky setups that burden rom-com as much as they fuel it.
Angie (Lauren Annunziata) and Seth (Jeremy Rishe) meet — cute, obviously — when he asks her to turn on his air-conditioner: It’s Friday night and as an observant Jew, he can’t do it himself. Soon enough, Angie becomes Seth’s bemused “Shabbos goy.”
It will take a bit longer, however, for them to realize they are each other’s person.
Angie is sidetracked by Blake (Ty Molbak), a hunky artist she’s trying to lure to her gallery, undeterred by the fact that he’s the kind of guy who prefaces a declaration with “Here’s what I see in your soul.” As for Seth, he must overcome the objections of his sister, Rachel (Lauren Singerman), who is appalled that he’s even thinking of dating outside their faith.
“The Sabbath Girl” shares a lot with the 1988 film “Crossing Delancey,” including an immersion in Jewish faith and culture, an arty female lead who hesitates between a flashy suitor and a humble working man and the influential presence of a benevolent grandmother.
In Angie’s case it’s Sophia (Angelina Fiordellisi), who keeps reminding her granddaughter, cheerily but insistently, that being a successful professional is all well and good, but a woman is not complete without true love. Never mind that Sophia’s ideas are just a tiny bit retrograde: Nonna gonna nonna.
While the cast of Joe Brancato’s Penguin Rep Theater production mostly does well by the forced characters and situations — almost everything having to do with the art world is ludicrous — Rishe stands out with his endearing portrayal of a nebbishy romantic.
It helps that Gitter is most comfortable writing that character, endowing Seth with a sweetness that falls just short of precious, whether he’s teaching Angie the proper way to eat a knish (“you put the mustard inside and close it up”) or standing up to his sister as he questions their religion’s demands.
Rachel tells her brother that he has “adorably flustered charm” — which may be a pattern for Gitter heroes, as the male protagonist of his earlier one-act “How My Grandparents Fell in Love” was said to be “admittedly charming, in a sort of bumbling way.”
Lest we think Angie and Seth gallop too easily toward a predetermined happily ever after, the play gives them a formidable final test, with an assist from costume designer Gregory Gale: Seth turns up in a screamingly ugly blazer and tie.
That Angie doesn’t recoil in horror means Grandma Sophia can rest easy: This love is made to last.
The Sabbath Girl
Through March 8 at 59E59 Theaters, Manhattan; 646-892-7999, 59e59.org. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.
Source: Theater - nytimes.com
