SIN Entertainment

Jest •

For James Sherman, blending fact with fiction in his plays
Beau Jestand Jesta Second is a literal comedy.
Just ask the machatunim

JULIE YOLLES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

DANIEL LIPPITT PHOTOGRAPHER

o nu, what are the G-oldmans to do in James
Sherman's comedies Beau Jest and Jest a
Second? Only plot will tell.
Beau Jest, which premiered in November
1989 at the Victory Gardens Theater in Lin-
coln Park, Ill. is the story of Sarah Goldman, C1/\
a nice Jewish kindergarten teacher who's al-
ways trying to please her parents at great
sacrifice to her personal well-being. Much
to the chagrin of her parents, Sarah's been
dating Chris Cringle. ("Yeah, yeah. Like San-
ta Claus," Chris reluctantly responds.)
"They just want 'what's best for their chil-
dren.' Which, translated, means I should only
date somebody Jewish," says Sarah.
So to humor her parents, Sarah supposed-
ly dumps Chris while continuing to see him
on the sly. Meanwhile, Sarah's mother, Miri-
am, keeps fixing her up with "sons of friends
and relatives and ... strangers she'd meet on
the street."
Unbeknownst to Sarah, Mrs. Goldman
even stoops to running personal ads in The
Jewish News — a crime most real-life Jew-
ish mothers have been known to clandestinely
commit.
To get Miriam and Abe off her back, Sarah
invents a nice Jewish doctor boyfriend. Af-
ter mom's considerable nudging, and the

,

Jest You Wait

M

eadow Brook's produc-
tion will be the first time
that Linnea Todd will
play Sarah in Jest a Sec-
ond. Sherman wrote the sequel
with his wife in mind to origi-
nate the role like she did in
Beau Jest. However, their son
Avery, who's now 1 1/2, was
born one month prior to re-
hearsals starting at Victory
Gardens Theater in the Chica-
go area, where the couple make
their home.
"I told somebody [a long time
ago] that I was going out with
this guy and we were going
to get married," recalls Todd.
"And she said 'You'll be set.
He'll write plays for you for-
ever,' ... And then I remember
thinking, Where's the play?' So
where's the play already?' "
she adds in a mock Jewish
accent.
'Well, I wrote one, and then
you didn't want to be in it," her
husband laughs.
"No, no, no. First, there was

This Old Man. Came Rolling
Home," she reminds him.

From their hometown of Skokie, III., James Sherman is in Michigan for three
months with sons Isaac and Avery while his wife, Linnea Todd, stars as Sarah
Goldman in his comedies Beau Jestand Jesta Second at Meadow Brook.

•

..

"Yeah, and you didn't want
to be in it," he reminds back.
"Well, I wanted to be in it,
but you wouldn't cast me in the
role I wanted to play. That was
the thing," she says emphat-
ically.
And the playful banter con-
tinues between the hus-

band/wife, actor/actress, father/ laughs" — in the Old Testa-
mother team, whose storybook ment, and is the title character
romance reads like one of Sher- name in Sherman's The God of
man's plays.
Isaac, was the ring bearer at
Sherman first became en- his parents' wedding.
chanted with Todd during
"Initially, I think there were
rehearsals for the original pro- some difficulties when we got
duction of Beau Jest.
married," says Todd, who was
"After the show opened and raised a Quaker. 'We were try-
it was running, Linnea thought ing to combine traditions from
it was very strange for a play- both faiths in a ceremony that
wright to keep coming to see his we wanted to create ourselves.
own show," recalls Sherman.
[James'] parents were a little
"I thought, 'Are we getting uneasy with that at first."
more rewrites or something?"
"We do not have a traditional
she says in disbelief.
lifestyle," adds Sherman. "We
Then came baby.
did not start being together in
"Todd Isaac Sherman cor- a traditional way, so both of our
dially invites you to the families have just kind of done
wedding of his parents," the their best to keep up."
invitation read.
Supporting that nontra-
"He was 1 1/2 years old be- ditional theory are Todd's
fore we actually had the wed- siblings. Her older brother con-
ding," Sherman says. "So, after verted to Judaism and married
he was born, we decided to try an Israeli woman. Her younger
living together. And that felt sister married a Kuwaiti and
OK, so I asked her to marry now lives in Kuwait.
me.
"So my brother and his wife
"It was looking like one of are raising their children Jew-
those Kurt Russell/Goldie ish. My sister is raising her
Hawn things," he adds about children Muslim. And we're
their dating relationship. Todd covering everything in be-
had been married once before, tween," she says.
to a Jewish man, and was re-
"And our children are being
luctant about taking the plunge raised in a trunk," jokes Sher-
again. "But I wanted to get man, who with Todd brought
married because I'm an old- Isaac and Avery to Michigan
fashioned kind of guy."
for the run of both shows.
Isaac, now 5-1/2, who was
"Ours are being raised as the
named after Isaac —"he who peacemakers," Todd laughs. ❑