They're in the Attic!

Even the poster evokes Lifetime TV, not legit theatre.

The amazing Irena Gut Opdyke

Went with my friend Bob to see "Irena's Vow" at the Walter Kerr Theatre. I feel like this is one of those "God forgive me" reviews because this is a play about the Holocaust and it was pretty weak. The play, not the Holocaust, of course.

How can one criticize a play that tells a story that demonstrates that "it" really happened and how bad "it" really was?

I know, I know.

Irena Gut Opdyke was a Polish nursing student who hid a dozen Jews when she was the housekeeper to a high-ranking German official during the war. She even had to become his mistress to save their lives. How can one even THINK - "Oh, not another story about a risk-taking Christian hiding Jews."

As Bob put it, "Schindler's Miss."

The story that the play is based on is an amazing and inspiring one, but the tone the playwright chose to take made me think of "Hogan's Heroes" with Irena mugging to her commandant, "Cellar? There's no one in the cellar." That sort of thing. And there was the hackneyed exchange of "Why didn't you tell us?" Ready for it?....."You never asked me." Yuk, yuk.

Yuck.

There were even beats in the play where my head went "Insert Song Here" as if this were supposed to be a musical. And OF COURSE one of the women is going to have a baby in hiding. I felt that one coming a kilometre away. The Nazis were buffoons one minute and then smashing a baby's head on the cobblestones in front of Irena the next. They make you laugh, they make you cry? This was awkward.

Nowadays it is really hard to pull off an original and effective Holocaust tale. But this true story (like so many) is so compelling it begs to be told daily and animatronially at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Complete with intact PowerPoint slide show of Nazi era photographs.

But not on Broadway. Not like this.

The moment that was best of all sadly was not even in the play. After the curtain call, the daughter of the real Irena Gut Opdyke came onstage and answered questions. She was amazing. I cried.

If only she could be there every night.