Schmucks

The Wilma Theater continues its 30th Anniversary Season with the U.S. Premiere of Schmucks, directed by the Wilma’s co-Artistic Director Jiri Zizka. A comic fantasy by Roy Smiles, Schmucks is a tale of a fictitious meeting between two comic icons, Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce.

It’s 1965, and the great Northeast Blackout thrusts New York City into a state of panic and disorder. Isolated in a small diner, a young stand-up comic, Joe Klein, with an upcoming gig on The Ed Sullivan Show encounters comedy legends Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce and implores them for comedic guidance, unleashing their unpredictably edgy and comic personas. As the two comedians clash over whose act is funnier and more relevant, the intensity quickly increases in a whirlwind of witty one-liners, zany antics, and uncensored punch lines.

This imaginative comedy exposes the secret motives that drove these two famed comedians to make people laugh as the characters spar over the purpose of comedy in society. Today, a current generation of comedians like Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Bill Maher and Sarah Silverman have followed in the footsteps of Marx and Bruce and put their mark on the cultural landscape with their spin on topics like politics, race, and religion.