On today's Style section front page, Washington Post theater reviewer Peter Marks gave unqualified praise for "Oy Vey In a Manger," a production at the Jewish Community Center in Northwest D.C. that features irreverent parodies of traditional Christmas and Chanukah songs in a ribald fashion:
Don they now their gay apparel! In an ecumenical display of wicked joie de vivre, the Kinsey Sicks are sending up everything that's holy in "Oy Vey in a Manger," a raunchily audacious declaration that nothing about the holidays is sacred.
If you haven't made the acquaintance of the Kinsey Sicks, it's high time you did. (Warning: for immature mature audiences only.) They're at Theater J through Jan. 2, and while other festive events may be decked out in red and green, theirs is of a bluer variety.
It's all good, the humor is equal-opportunity, offensive to Jews and Christians, Marks approvingly writes:
The quartet is 50 percent Jewish and 50 percent gentile, which is why, target-wise, the show is a model of diversity.
"Jews don't sing Christmas carols; we just write them!" one of the Kinsey Sicks declares, after Keller, the a cappella group's pitch pipe, has led them through "Lusty the Snowman." Some of the songs are a bit tamer, as is the case with a little ditty to the tune of the "Dreidel Song," which goes: "I had a little facial/I made it out of clay/And when it's dry and ready/I look like Beyonce."
"How can you not be tickled at this time of year by ladies decked out in their finest telling you the story of the gifts to the baby Jesus of Barney Frank, incense and myrrh?" Marks gushed at the close of his enthusiastic review.
While there's probably a significant minority of the Post readership who appreciate self-styled "dragapella beauty-shop quartet[s]," it would be nice for the Post Style page to devote a bit more coverage to decidedly more reverent and/or broadly-appealing Christmas entertainment fare.
The image above via the Kinsey Sicks as published online at WashingtonPost.com. The accompanying caption read: "FA-LA-LA-HA-HA: The "dragapella beauty-shop quartet' reinterprets holiday favorites, sparing neither Jews nor gentiles from humorous musings"
