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Article IndexJersey girl Judy Gold humorously considers her evolving world in a new solo show
BY MICHAEL SOMMERS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
OFF BROADWAY REVIEW
A funny Jersey girl who grew up in Clark in Union County, Judy Gold is a 6’3” Jewish lesbian mom of two sons who has made her living as a stand-up comic, actress and writer.
Perhaps you’ve caught Gold on “The View” and “The Joy Behar Show” or as a comical commentator on the “Tru TV Presents World’s Dumbest” series. Back in 2006, Gold enjoyed an off Broadway success with “25 Questions For a Jewish Mother” regarding her uneasy relationship with a cantankerous mama – who, by the way, later called me up to gripe about my tepid review of her daughter’s show.
Gold now returns to off Broadway with a new solo venture, “The Judy Show – My Life As A Sitcom,” which opened on Wednesday at the DR2 Theater.
The theme for this entertaining 80-minute spiel is that during her Clark girlhood, Gold “spent hours lying on my belly on the shag carpeting getting lost in the world of the 70s sitcom.”
Citing “The Brady Bunch” and “Good Times” as favorites, Gold says she loved them “because these families actually communicated with each other … We had two kinds of communication in my family – screaming and not talking to each other.”
So off she goes, telling sweetly sardonic stories about her existence in and out of suburban Jersey and the Upper West Side and how they relate to sitcoms ranging from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to “Seinfeld.” Along the way, Gold grows beyond her band geek days and Rutgers awakenings to develop into the proud (if somewhat frazzled) lesbian mom and partner she is today. A running gag sees Gold vainly pitching her evolving life as a sitcom to various networks.
A confident, upbeat personality, Gold makes sly fun of her own misjudgments as much as she remarks on the quirks of her family and the changing society around her. Written by Gold with Kate Moira Ryan in an easygoing conversational manner, “The Judy Show” amusingly mentions matters as timely as gay marriage and as timeless as nagging Jewish mothers. A touching story about Gold’s late father ties everything together with a rainbow ribbon.
Through all the trials and tribulations of being TALL as a teenager, hiding the secret of being gay, relationships, motherhood, parents, siblings - Judy shares it with the audience as though we are her confidants!
Great timing, excellent TV theme songs and the superb mixing of happy/sad and life - on life's terms!
BRAVO Judy!!!!!
she is the best argument for gay marriage since she is trying to bring up her two sons as normally as is possible in this abnormal world.