L ifestyle /C ulture
Ari Shapiro’s ‘Och and Oy’ to Run at Kimmel Center
T H EATER
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
THOUGH HOST OF National
Public Radio’s All Things
Considered since 2015, Ari
Shapiro is far from having a
face made for radio.

The journalist will take to
the stage on Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.

the Kimmel Cultural Campus’s
Merriam Theater, joining actor
and performer Alan Cumming
in “Och and Oy: A Considered
Cabaret.” A departure from his
usual reporting, but a return
to Shapiro’s long love of stage
performance, “Och and Oy” is
a nod to Shapiro’s Jewish roots
and Cumming’s Scottish ones.

Shapiro describes the
cabaret as having “some of
the thoughtful conversations
that you would expect from a
public radio broadcast, as well
as the kind of entertaining
song and dance numbers that
you would expect from an
Alan Cumming show.”
The one-night show also
underlines the return of
in-person performances for the
Kimmel Center’s 2021-2022
season, which began on Sept. 18.

“What you have with Alan
are a little ragged around
Cumming and Ari Shapiro is
the edges, the things that
one of those combinations
are unexpected, the things
where the whole is greater
that don’t go the way you
than the sum of its parts,”
had planned, are actually
said Matías Tarnopolsky,
the best, most delightful
incoming president and CEO
moments,” Shapiro said.

of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Rather than thinking
and Kimmel Center, Inc.

about bearing his soul to
The duo has known each
a large audience, Shapiro
other since 2014, when
instead thinks
about Shapiro met Cumming
confiding in Cumming,
backstage of the “Cabaret”
whom he considers a friend,
Broadway revival in which
during “Och & Oy” perfor-
Shapiro’s friend
was mances, where Shapiro tells
performing. Cumming
stories of himself growing up.

played the show’s Emcee.

“Friends have sometimes
From left: Alan Cumming and
The two developed a Ari Shapiro wrote “Och and Oy: A
asked if it’s intimidating
Cabaret” as a nod to their
friendship over the next five Considered
— sharing the stage with
respective Scottish and Jewish roots.

Courtesy of Hannah Clough somebody as accomplished
years until the idea for “Och
and Oy” was conceived in
as Alan,” Shapiro said. “And
2019. Cumming, whom Shapiro the truth is, it’s the opposite
“Over the course of several believes demonstrates the because Alan is so good at what
years, our paths continued to vulnerability he stays away he does.”
cross,” Shapiro said. “And then from in public radio, but hopes
Though Cumming is a
one day, Alan said, ‘You know, to embody onstage.

veteran of the stage, Shapiro is
you and I should make a show
Shapiro insists that he no stranger to performing.

together,’ and we have.”
wanted to pursue the oppor-
Shapiro remembered
A journalist with NPR for tunity to perform in his own attending plays with his
more than 20 years, Shapiro cabaret show because he parents growing up, where he
is used to asking the questions wanted to continue to grow was enraptured by the worlds
and spotlighting his interview outside of NPR. Along the way, the performers created on stage
subject. Being the subject of his Cumming has taught Shapiro for the audience to live in for
own show, he learned to “use a some unexpected lessons.

the duration of the show.

different muscle set.”
“Alan has taught me that
He made his theater debut
Shapiro took cues from sometimes the things that at a Jewish Community Center
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JEWISH EXPONENT
summer theater camp in
Portland, Oregon, not far from
Beaverton, Oregon, where he
grew up.

Since 2009, Shapiro has
periodically performed
with the band Pink Martini,
becoming versatile in singing
in multiple languages.

Yet “Och and Oy” is much
different than his time in Pink
Martini, Shapiro said.

“As a guest performer who
shows up and sings a song or
a couple of songs, getting to
tour with [Pink Martini] is an
experience like summer camp,”
Shapiro said. “Creating the
show with Alan was building
something from scratch —
collaboratively — just the two
of us and our musical director,
Henry Koperski, then watching
it come to fruition, creating it
on stage, night-after-night.”
Though “Och and Oy” was
originally scheduled for the
Kimmel Center in October
2020, little has changed about
the show’s content over the
pandemic. Early this summer, when
Shapiro and
Cumming reunited after a year-and-a-
half apart to perform “Och and
Oy” once more, they tweaked
the show to incorporate the
ongoing pandemic, but with
little success.

They ultimately decided to
not include the pandemic in
the show.

“We realized that was not
what people wanted and, in
fact, people have spent their
lives for more than a year
now consumed with dire,
depressing news,” Shapiro said.

“What this show can provide
is something delightful and
surprising and refreshing
and new.”
Tickets for “Och and Oy: A
Considered Cabaret” are avail-
able atkimmelculturalcampus.

org/. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM