STAGE REVIEW : Comedy ‘Imi Hageneralit’ Mimics a Sitcom in Hebrew

Imagine Ida Morgenstern or Molly Goldberg visiting their offspring at Camp Pendleton.

TV comedy characters are the most familiar American analogues for the types who populate the Israeli comedy “Imi Hageneralit (My Mother the General),” which has opened in a Hebrew-language production at Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood.

The play’s domineering mother (Norit Cohen) invades the barracks of her son (Eyal Grad) and begins to take over. Little does she realize that her husband (Tzvi Amitai) has somehow managed to expand his Reserve duty into a job as cook in the very same unit.

No, it’s not the kind of highbrow troupe that might be invited to the L.A. Festival. This is a rarity in Los Angeles theater: a relentlessly commercial foreign-language production that has announced a four-week, six-performances-per-week run in one of the city’s larger mid-size theaters--with talk of an English-language version to follow.

The initial run is trying to attract customers primarily from Los Angeles’ large Israeli population (estimates range from 150,000 to 300,000). On opening night, hardly a word of English could be heard in the lobby or the aisles--or onstage. There is no English translation on headsets or supertitles.

Eli Saghi’s script relies heavily on jokes. Though many of them are accompanied by vigorous mugging, a knowledge of Hebrew is vital to appreciate most of the punch lines. A brief English-language synopsis in the program covers basic plot points but captures hardly any comic flavor.

Not a Hebrew speaker myself, I was accompanied by a helpful interpreter, who whispered translations of some of the most pungent lines and talked about what we had seen during intermission and after the play.

What we had seen was a sitcom--and not “MASH,” with its awareness of an actual war being fought. No, despite a few mentions of the nearby Syrians, this is a “Sgt. Bilko”-type service comedy.

Besides the stereotyped Jewish mother, her polite but resistant son and her runaway husband, the characters include a scruffy second banana (Gabi Amrani), a curvaceous female clerk (Smadar Brener) and an officious commander (Yoni Danino) who arrives at the end of act one to investigate the disarray.

Naturally, the mother has to hide in a big pot during the commander’s visit.

Cohen generates plenty of titters as she tries to make her son wear pink slippers instead of Army boots or as she instructs the young clerk on how to attract a man--without realizing that her son is the target of the clerk’s seduction plans.

Still, some of the more amusing gags quickly grow stale. The commander sits on a thorny branch not once, but twice; the clerk removes her glasses and bumps into everything on stage.

Considering the recycled quality of this kind of humor, the $50 price tag for the best seats in the house is steep. If these tickets sell, one suspects it’s because emigres are anxious to see a play--any play--in their own language, regardless of its inherent quality.

The play was launched in 1970 in Israel but has since played in countries as disparate as Uruguay, South Africa and Germany. On opening night, the show began about 20 minutes after the announced curtain time.

* “Imi Hageneralit (My Mother the General),” Las Palmas Theatre, 1642 N. Las Palmas Ave., Hollywood, Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m. Ends June 9. $20-$50. (800) 869-0267. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.

‘Imi Hageneralit

(My Mother the General)’

A play by Eli Saghi. Produced by Benjamin Shabtay with Lara Productions. Directed by Saghi. Sets and lights Robert W. Zentis.