Rich in sympathy and humor, Indecent has the scope of an epic but the intimacy of a chamber piece…It celebrates and illustrates the power of theater. Vogel’s play thrums with music, desire, and fear, and it’s shrewd about the ways in which America isn’t free, and about how art does and doesn’t transcend the perilous winds of history.” - New Yorker “Revelatory…As intimate and immediate as a whispered secret. “A moving and fascinating play…A singular achievement… The historical perspective is vast and knowing…Has there ever been anything quite like Indecent, a play that touches-I mean deeply touches-so much rich emotion about history and the theater, anti-Semitism, homophobia, censorship, world wars, red-baiting, and oh, yes, joyful human passion?.An extraordinary play.” - Newsday “Indecent is more than a play about forbidden love: It’s about theater as a life force.” - New York Post Vogel’s Indecent resurrects Sholem Asch’s great play, and celebrates the love, magic, and hope of the theatre even in the face of the greatest adversities.“Superbly realized…Indecent, the powerful play by Paula Vogel, sheds an eye-opening light on a little-known time when theatrical history, Jewish culture, and the frank depiction of homosexuality intersected, with explosive results.” - The New York Times But when an English-translation was attempted on Broadway, the play-featuring the first kiss between women on a Broadway stage-proved too scandalous for the general public, and the entire cast was arrested and charged with obscenity.

Swiftly shut down by the vice squad, its 1923. Asch’s largely forgotten three-act masterwork which at the turn of the 20th century. Created with the director Rebecca Taichman, Indecent is inspired by Sholem Asch’s Yiddish play The God of Vengeance and events surrounding it.

Nevertheless, it achieved great success on the stages of Europe and in the Yiddish theatre scene of downtown New York City. In 2017, as the centerpiece of Paula Vogel’s Tony Award-winning Indecent, it became something more. Vogel’s play thrums with music, desire, and fear, and it’s shrewd about the ways in which America isn’t free, and about how art does and doesn’t transcend the perilous winds of history. The story-about the daughter of a brothel owner who falls in love with one of her father’s prostitutes-was polarizing even at its first readings, with many of Asch’s fellows arising him to burn it. The New York premiere of Indecent, a new play with music, written by Paula Vogel, created by Vogel and Rebecca Taichman, will begin previews at The Vineyard Theatre April 27. I’m Jewish, my companion tonight is not impact seems equally experienced.

I hope its new location brings the worthy piece extended audience. A small theatre company tells the story of the play from its inception in Poland in 1907. Paula Vogel and Rebecca Teichman’s deft, provocative production has moved, much intact, from The Vineyard Theatre to The Cort. Indecent by Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel tells the story of Sholem Asch’s controversial play, The God of Vengeance, and the passionate artists who risked everything to bring it to the stage.

Indecent by Paula Vogel