Theatre Ariel is a professional theater in Philadelphia that has produced plays about Jewish history and culture for over thirty years. Their current show, on stage at the Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake, is a world premier written by Dan Kitrosser, an award winning playwright, screenwriter, and story teller. In this play, the title alone drew me in.
“Marsha Blovotnick and the Marvelous Magical Chicken Soup” is a funny play but I wouldn’t call it a comedy. It deals with Masha (Janis Dardaris), an angry woman who is angry about everything, from her sister, to her ex-lovers, to the situation in the world she lives in. As a socialist, lesbian Jewish theater owner in the home she has lived in since childhood, she has failed financially to support that theater, which was housed in her very home. She is dealing with the fact that her sister Janice (Susan Riley Stevens), who she has been estranged from for many years, is coming to the house to share a Shabbat dinner with her. Marsha wants no part of her. But before she arrives, Marsha realizes that she has forgotten to make the chicken soup, a staple in their Shabbat diners since childhood.
What makes this play so powerful is how it deals with universal themes so naturally. Though Janice and Marsha were raised in the same home by their father, Janice has rejected that life of political and social action and married and moved away to the suburbs with her husband. There, they had a son, who is gay and married another man and we learn of his life when he also drops in at Marsha’s that evening. Marsha even argues with Jonathan (Mason Rosenthal), but he is so insecure, he doesn’t fight back
Another surprise visitor is Lilith (Jennifer Summerfield), Marsha’s third ex-wife, who has come by to collect her things. Marsha and she disagree on so many things, but then again, Marsha disagrees with everyone about almost everything. She is frustrated. She is unhappy. She is angry. And we realize that we share much of her anger. And that is what makes this play so engaging.
The sisters have real problems, from the cancers that both had, to the fate of the family home. We wonder if anything can be resolved as Janice tries to forgive her sister.
And then, to top it off, there is Chorus, a Jesus or Moses-like character who serves as an on-stage narrator and also as Marsha’s conscience at times. Chorus (Adam Pelta-Pauls) explains things, he anticipates actions. And he reminds us of the possible cure-all for not only the problems faced by the characters in the play, but of the problems of the world- chicken soup. Yes, chicken soup, the Jewish penicillin.
This wonderful 90-minute play by Dan Kitrosser is a play that relates to us all. The friend who accompanied me was laughing and loving it as much as everyone in the sold-out theater. And she’s not Jewish. I enjoyed listening to each character and identified with them all. Dardaris was great! Stevens was great! Pelta-Pauls was great! They were all great!! Director Jesse Bernstein has developed this dynamic little play into a small epic that is sure to be grabbed by other theaters around the country for production.
“Marsha Blovotnick and the Marvelous Magical Chicken Soup” by Dan Kitrosser at Theatre Ariel being performed at The Louis Bluver Theatre, 302 S. Hicks St., Philadelphia 19102, 610-667-9230, Info@TheatreAriel.org Extended thru March 29, 2026
Philadelphia Theater Reviews by Frank Burd 