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I Did It My Way In Yiddish (In English) ~ MetroStage

Jordan Wright
April 17, 2018
Special to The Alexandria Times

“Some Say Yiddish is a dying language.  But I’m here to resurrect it!” quips Deb Filler, Kiwi comedian and Helen Hayes Award-winning nominee for her twenty-seven character show, Filler Up.  In I Did It My Way In Yiddish (In English), Filler schools her audiences in the culture and familiar phrases that formed the backbone of Jewish shtick and that gave rise to American vaudeville.  But you don’t have to be Jewish to get in on the fun.  In this one-woman show, she provides the word in English in her charming New Zealand accent.  If you didn’t already know meshuggeneh (crazy), mensch (a stand-up guy), or chutzpah (brazenness), you will.  As the common language among European Jews for over 1,000 years, it tied communities together as they navigated the unknown outside the Old Country.  Filler explains in her hilarious intro, “Yiddish is a combination of high German and mucous.”

Deb Filler’s “I Did it My Way in Yiddish (in English)” ~ Photo credit Chris Banks

Framed by her autobiographical story growing up in New Zealand with a stereotypical stage mother and Holocaust survivor and baker father, she regales her audiences with comic tales of her days in New Zealand, later coming to America and winding up in Canada.  Stories interwoven from her awkward but seminal teenage years and her kismet-style meetings with celebrities, are captivating.

Filler came of age in the 1960’s during the folk era bracketed by the rise of the Beatles.  Encouraged by her mother to perform in child talent contests where she sang and strummed Judy Garland songs, she finds herself at a Peter, Paul and Mary concert in Aukland where she has a chance meeting with the trio who ask her to join them onstage.  She does.  Though it doesn’t work out as well as she had hoped.  The group’s hottest gold record hits that she had practiced religiously in the hopes of usurping Mary’s role in the trio (She was just a kid!), were not offered and she was pressed into singing solo a Judy Garland song.

Deb Filler’s “I Did it My Way in Yiddish (in English)” ~ Photo credit Chris Banks

Along with a fondness for composer Leonard Bernstein, as a teenager she embraced folk music and poet songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Lenny Kravitz – all famous musicians she was fated to meet.  She shares those and other humorous stories emphasizing her father’s influence on her life with both love and humor.  Some tunes she translates into Yiddish.  Imagine “A Hard Day’s Night” in Yiddish.  It happens.  And so does a chance meeting and bonding over her father’s challah bread with famed composer Leonard Bernstein.  Her third Lenny!  During the show, Filler screens a heartwarming short she has written, and Francine Zuckerman has directed, on her girlhood meeting with Bernstein.

Her Jewish jokes and musical interstices are coupled with guitar-accompanied sing-alongs.  Who doesn’t remember these classic pop songs?  Pretty soon she has won the audience’s affection and this folk-singing comedian and water activist proves that if you can just flow with the vagaries of life, you too will find your niche.  (Look for her this summer in the upcoming FX TV series, Shark Lords.)

A heartwarming show filled with laughter and joy.  You’ll be kvelling (rejoicing) all the way home!

With direction by John Shooter and lighting design by Yehuda Fisher and Alex Keen.

Through April 29th at MetroStage 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, 22314.  For tickets and information visit www.metrostage.org.

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