‘Hanukkah Lights’ at University of Judaism
It’s easy for Jewish children to be overwhelmed by the pageantry of Christmas--including all the Christmas plays that welcome kids.
So the Shpielers created “Hanukkah Lights” (at the University of Judaism’s Gindi Auditorium), a zippy little musical comedy that gives Jewish children an experience comparable to a Christmas play without adding to the confusion between the two holidays.
In fact, it explicitly clears up that confusion. Mixed-up Mac and the Bees are telling a “Hanukkah story” about old Uncle Latke, who distributes Hanukkah gifts, when they’re sprinkled with “anti-confusion dust.”
They sneeze “Ah-Jew!” and suddenly the true story of Hanukkah resurfaces.
Some of it, anyway. This is a lighthearted, updated version. The wordplay will amuse parents, even if some of the lines (a Jew addresses the anti-Jewish King Antiochus as “your great streptococcus”) are over the heads of the younger children. But both generations will respond to at least one such joke: One of the idols Antiochus wants the Jews to worship is named Nintendo.
The violence that resulted from the Jewish revolt against Antiochus is kept offstage or, in one gratuitously strobe-lit scene, highly abstract. However, Antiochus and his idol-selling cohort look mean enough, in their menacing masks; there is no doubt they’re the bad guys.
The script falters only near the end, which is rather solemn and abrupt. The miracle in which one day’s worth of oil lasts eight days gets short shrift, and the characters of Mac and the Bees simply disappear.
Still, the bright costumes and sets and mild audience participation hold the audience’s attention, and the Shpielers themselves--Cindy Paley Aboody, Ed Bender, C. (Chutzpah) Craven and Andrea Massion--are personable performers who know how to project.
The score includes four songs by Deborah Lynn Friedman, “Light One Candle” by Peter Yarrow, and additional lyrics by Gordon Lustig. Uri Ophir is the musical director.
At 15600 Mulholland Drive , Sunday at 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets: $6-$7; (818) 893-1728.
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