Conflicts and laughs from unexpected interfaith love in the musical rom-com ‘The Sabbath Girl’ at Off-Broadway’s 59E59

Following a run this May at Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point, NY, The Sabbath Girl: A New Musical by Cary Gitter (book and lyrics) and Neil Berg (music and lyrics), is now making its Off-Broadway debut for a limited engagement at 59E59, where an earlier non-musical production of the show played in February of 2020, prior to the pandemic shutdown. Conceived and directed by Joe Brancato, the old-fashioned rom-com follows the relationship of Angie, an independent 30-year-old woman of Italian descent who’s sworn off men after a bad break-up with her cheating ex-boyfriend and is now focused on her new apartment and her new art gallery on New York’s Lower East Side – despite the urging of her Nonna (grandmother) Sophia to find love – and her Orthodox Jewish neighbor Seth, the recently divorced co-owner and operator of a knish shop with his devoutly observant sister Rachel, who is determined to set him up in another arranged marriage with someone from their own insular community in Riverdale.

Their first chance encounter occurs when Seth knocks on the door of the apartment down the hall from his, where its former Korean occupant Mr. Lee helped him on the Sabbath, when the Orthodox are required to rest (not even turn on the air conditioner or change a light bulb), and finds he’s moved out and Angie has moved in. Though busy trying to land the hot artist Blake for a show at her floundering gallery, she agrees to help Seth with the little chores and becomes his new “Shabbos goy.”

But the accidental meeting leads to candid conversations about their previous failed relationships, their shared love of the creative arts (she as a curator, he as a budding writer), and a growing friendship that evolves into a surprise romance that neither was looking for, which creates conflicts in their lives, compounded by Rachel’s overbearing interference, his “crisis of faith,” and Angie’s attraction to Blake, who expects her to “woo” him for his in-demand exhibition – at first professionally, then crossing the line into something more.

An engaging cast of five – Marilyn Caserta as Angie, Max Wolkowitz as Seth, Diana DiMarzio as Nonna, Lauren Singerman as Rachel, and Rory Max Kaplan as Blake – embodies the familiar ethnic, religious, generational, and social types with purpose, humor, and angst, as they convey their thoughts and feelings through sixteen songs, accompanied by music director Matthew Lowy on keyboard and Katie Chambers on cello (with musical supervision and arrangements by Wendy Bobbitt Cavett, orchestrations by Alex Wise, and sound by Kwamina Biney). All bring their fine voices, apropos emotion, and fitting characterizations, with a predictable happy ending (it is a musical rom-com after all!), a surprise about Angie’s encouraging Nonna (which you won’t necessarily see coming but makes sense in retrospect), and a positive overlying message of learning and growing, acceptance and happiness, and overcoming past experiences and inherent differences through the power of love.

Each actor is given featured moments to shine. Among the highlights are Nonna’s fond memories of meeting and falling in love with her husband of 40 years at “Roseland,” Angie and Seth moving beyond failed relationships and troubles by metaphorically throwing them “Off the Roof,” Rachel expressing her deep Orthodox commitment in “Something Bigger Than Us,” Angie’s smart analysis of Blake’s paintings in “Chiaroscuro Light,” his hilariously egomaniacal behavior, including the pretentious come-on to her in “I Wanna Paint You” (sung to Angie while wearing his cool sunglasses in a dark wine bar, which doesn’t go unnoticed by her), and her expressive powerhouse rendition of “A Life in Art.” There are also the least likely f-bombs dropped by Nonna and Rachel, and the latter’s archetypal response to Seth’s comment, about her negative attitude towards the shiksa Angie, that it’s 2024 (“Not for us it’s not! For us it’s 5784! That’s almost six thousand years of tradition”).

An efficient set with rotating walls by Christopher and Justin Swader transitions fluidly from Angie’s apartment to Seth’s, his knish shop to her gallery, with lighting by Jamie Roderick that enhances the changing moods, and costumes by Gregory Gale and props by Buffy Cardoza that help define the distinctive backgrounds and beliefs of the characters. While The Sabbath Girl has a theme and tone that harken back to rom-com films and TV sit-coms of the last decades of the 20^th century, its entertaining cast underscores the hope of coming together and loving one another in these divisive times, when it most needs repeating.

Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes, without intermission.

The Sabbath Girl: A New Musical plays through Saturday, September 1, 2024, at 59E59 Theaters, Theater A, 59 East 59^th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $66-86, including fees), call (646) 892-7999, or go online.