Broadway: Alex Edelman’s Just for Us

How did a Jewish man end up at a meeting of White Nationalists? Alex Edelman would love to tell you.

In Edelman’s one-man show, Just For Us, he recounts battling a stream of anti-Semetic hate directed to him online and sets the scene for the audience as he recalls the decision to confront the faces behind the screens at an organized neo-Nazi gathering — all while embellishing the tale with anecdotes and thought journeys that led him to an apartment in Queens.

The theatricality of Edelman’s storytelling immediately engages the audience. As an audience member, you’re seated with Edelman as your guide as he uses props and limited set pieces and moves enthusiastically around the stage to tell a story. Throughout the 90-minute show, he uses blocking and theatricality to bring his story to life through a set of established characters.

Edelman’s comedy writing, which he playfully calls “dumb jokes,” is quite the contrary. He opens the show with a bit about Koko the Gorilla and Robin Williams’ passing in 2014, which was initially confusing to an audience in 2023.

At first, it seems disconnected, but it allows the audience to comprehend Edelman’s comedic style on a lower stakes bit and establishes him as a comic before he dives into a story where he is making comedy of a situation with much higher stakes.

The audience sees and understands his thought journey as he recounts how Koko was emotional about Williams’ passing and notes that Williams’ comedy crossed “species lines.” Edelman sets the audience up with his perspective— if Robin Williams could get his comedy to cross species, why couldn’t Edelman sit down with people of different ideologies?

Edelman is a clear master at anecdotal comedy and captivates the audience. One of the greatest strengths of this show is Edelman’s mastery of storytelling, both in writing and delivery. Once he sets the scene — Edelman en route to a meeting of White Nationalists in Queens — he dips and dives into anecdotes from his life that reveal to the audience how this situation came to be in the first place. From Edelman’s upbringing in the Boston area to his relationship with Judaism throughout his life to navigating his identity, the audience begins to see how Edelman finds himself in the hot seat in his virtuous attempt to bridge differences.

The piece is refreshing and a riot, with Edelman keeping the audience on their toes until the shocking ending. It is refreshing to see a comedy that pokes fun at personal anecdotes without being overly crude. Edelman, known for his comedy that heavily draws upon his identity as a Jewish man, walks a thin line between politics and socially sensitive subjects and handles the topics with care and grace. The irony is not lost on the fact Edelman is telling a story of how he was othered while standing on stage in a room that completely embraces him.

Following acclaimed runs in London, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Boston, and Washington D.C., as well as a six-time extended Off-Broadway engagement, Alex Edelman’s Just for Us plays on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre until August 19.