Entertainment

A ‘Schlemiel’ fit for a king

You’ll probably head straight for a deli after “Shlemiel the First,” the delightful morsel of a 1994 klezmer musical based on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “Chelm” stories. In this world, food is uppermost in everyone’s minds.

“Your blintzes don’t satisfy me anymore,” a husband tells his wife, to her chagrin, while another says, “Your lips taste like juicy kreplach and your breasts are like two big hot potato knishes.”

Conceived and adapted by Robert Brustein, this charming show is the perfect antidote during this time of holiday tsuris. You’ll laugh, you’ll kvell . . . you’d have to be meshugga — that is to say, crazy — not to have a good time.

The story depicts the misadventures of the aptly named Shlemiel (Michael Iannucci), a dim-witted resident of the village of Chelm who’s recruited to travel through the countryside spreading the wisdom of the town’s leaders.

After a rascal robs him of his money and latkes, Shlemiel mistakenly reverses course and winds up in what he thinks is a duplicate Chelm, complete with identical versions of his long-suffering wife (Amy Warren) and children. As it turns out, sleeping with another Mrs. Shlemiel is just the thing to perk up a marriage that’s gone stale.

It’s physiologically impossible to listen to klezmer music without feeling joy, and this show’s rollicking score — composed and adapted by Hankus Netsky with witty lyrics by Arnold Weinstein, and performed live — is a delight. The highlight is “Geography Song,” featuring a shout-out to that classic Yiddish song, “Romania.” The eight musicians periodically emerge from the pit to play onstage, as if their exuberance simply can’t be contained.

David Gordon’s zany staging and choreography and Robert Israel’s surreal, off-kilter set add to the merriment.

And you’ve got to admire the sheer chutzpah of a show featuring a musical number in which the hero stops to pish on a rock, his back to us, while the other characters freeze in place until he finishes.