Created by Hannah Moscovitch, Ben Caplan, and Christian Barry
Directed by Christian Barry
With Ben Caplan, Mary Fay Coady, Jamie Kronick, Graham Scott, and Chris Weatherstone
Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story is a humorously dark folktale woven together with a high-energy concert.

This Klezmer-folk music-theater hybrid starring genre-bending sensation Ben Caplan is inspired by the true stories of two Jewish Romanian refugees coming to Canada in 1908. It’s about how to love after being broken by the horrors of war. It’s about refugees who get out before it’s too late, and those who get out after it’s too late. And it’s about looking into the eyes of God.

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (at 59E59 Theaters) is definitely a different kind of theatrical experience. Conceptually, it’s beautiful: a cast and set that emerge from a giant shipping crate, a klezmer score, a story about Jewish refugees in search of human connection, a penetrating script sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek moments, and an entertaining narrator/front-man with a powerful voice. In practice, it’s less than perfect. While there are certainly things to love about this quirky show written by Hannah Moscovitch and directed by Christian Barry (with songs by Ben Caplan and Christian Barry), Old Stock doesn’t quite add up as a whole. Maybe it’s the lack of time we get to spend with our main characters: Chaim and Chaya, two Jewish refugees from Romania who meet in Canada. Their story is compelling: a pogrom decimated Chaim’s entire family, and Chaya lost her husband to typhus, then her baby to starvation. Both have suffered, both have lost, but both are determined to start anew. Chaim (Chris Weatherstone) is eager and charming. And Chaya (Mary Fay Coady) may be a little prickly, but we’re rooting for her. The scenes they share are authentic and warm. And the revelation that t …Read more