About the Play:

Adam Baum and the Jew Movie is a full-length comedic drama by Daniel Goldfarb. A Jewish studio head is eager to make a movie about anti-semitism. He hires a successful WASP writer to ensure the script won't be "too Jewish." Inspired by an actual conversation that reportedly took place in the 1940s between screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. and Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn concerning a possible movie about anti-Semitism.

Adam Baum and the Jew Movie takes place in Hollywood in 1946, where famous Jewish movie mogul Sam Baum (based on MGM's Samuel Goldwyn) prepares to give notes to Gentile screenwriter Garfield "Gar" Hampson Jr. on his screenplay about anti-Semitism. Time is of the essence. Zanuck at Fox has his own "Jew Movie," Gentleman's Agreement, and America can only take one. Gar arrives, excited and optimistic. He feels that with his research into Jewish culture and a good dose of strong sympathy he can write the ultimate indictment of bigotry in America. Sam chats him up, but then gets to the point: The script is too Jewish; Gar has written it "as a Jew, and not as a Gentile." As the men argue about the script, about what it means to be American, what it means to be Jewish, their own ideas about identity come head-to-head, spilling into an evening spent at the bar mitzvah of Baum's son, Adam.

Adam Baum and the Jew Movie premiered in 1999 at off-Broadway's McGinn-Cazale Theatre, won the 2000 Oppenheimer Award for Best New York debut, the Canadian Authors Association Award for Best Play, and was a Dramatist's Guild Hull-Warriner Award Finalist.

Cast: 2 men, 1 boy

What people say:

"Stocked with uneasy questions about self-deception and self-hatred." — Time Magazine

"...comic genius." — Variety

"The script has a complexity that is rare by today's dumb-and-dumber standards. Here, after all, is a play that understands just how insidious prejudice is and also how racist attitudes can be lurking in the most unexpected places." — New York Daily News

About the Playwright:

Daniel Goldfarb is a playwright and educator. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing at Tisch (BFA, MFA), where he is a Professor and Area Head of Playwriting. Born and educated in Toronto, he lives in New York.