King of the Jews

One night after curfew in the Astoria Café, a group of waiters, cooks, and entertainers, along with a spare rabbi or two, are forced by the German occupiers to form a Judenrat, a group of self-governing Jews who will thenceforth govern the lives—and determine the deaths—of their co-religionists in the ghetto that surrounds them. In that first act, they are forced, at a terrible cost, to choose their Elder, who is based on the true-life character Chaim Rumkowski, leader of the Lodz Ghetto in Poland. Later, in the second act, we see the Judenrat and its leader confronted with the terrible moral dilemma of having to decide: Who among their fellow Jews is to live and who is to die? It is not a choice that any human being can make, not in a world that has not become morally unhinged and absurd. And yet, they must. In the madness, double-dealing, and even humor that ensues, we join these ordinary mortals as they plumb the depths of the unimaginable that history has thrust upon them.

“Crowning Glory… Flawless” – The Boston Globe 

Written by Leslie Epstein
Directed by Alexandra Aron

Cast includes Richard Topol (Broadway: Indecent) who is joined by Erica Spyres (Broadway: Paradise Square), Daniel Oreskes ( Broadway: West Side Story), John Little ( Broadway: Cabaret), Dave Shalansky (TV: “Gillmore Girls”), Rachel Botchan (Regional: Indecent), Allen Lewis Rickman (Broadway: Relatively Speaking), Robert Zukerman (Film: In Bed With Ulysses), Jonathan Spivey (The Front Page), Wesley Tiso (Chicago PD), and JP Sarro (Orange is the New Black.)

Creative team:
Lauren Helpern (set design), Zach Blane (light design), Jane Shaw (sound design), Oana Botez (costume design), and Sarah Pencheff-Martion (props design).

Casting by Jamibeth Margolis.

This show is produced by John Breen for Parkman Productions. Presented in collaboration with GOH Productions.

Updated: March 8, 2023

HERE is now a mask-optional space. All patrons attending HERE performances and events will no longer be required to wear masks.

We ask all audience members to please stay home if they have a sore throat, are feeling sick in any other way, or have been recently exposed to COVID-19, and to please contact the box office for refunds or exchanges.

All of our performers, technicians, and staff members are required to be fully vaccinated and masked unless they are onstage performing. Additionally, they are participating in an active testing regimen to keep everyone as safe as possible.

HERE reserves the right to revise protocols as the rate of transmission changes and in light of new scientific data that may present itself.