List of Jewish American playwrights

This is a list of notable Jewish American playwrights. For other Jewish Americans, see Lists of Jewish Americans.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

• David Adjmi^[1]
• Lynn Ahrens^[2]
• Sholom Aleichem^[3]
• Woody Allen (born 1935), film director, writer, actor, and comedian^[4]
• Jacob M. Appel^[5]
• George Axelrod^[6]
• Jeff Baron
• S. N. Behrman^[7]
• David Belasco^[8]
• Saul Bellow^[9]
• Leo Birinski
• Agnes Borinsky
• Mel Brooks^[10]
• Paddy Chayefsky^[11]
• Betty Comden & Adolph Green^[2]
• Norman Corwin^[12]
• Howard Dietz^[13]
• Edward Einhorn^[14]
• Eve Ensler^[15]
• Harvey Fierstein^[16]
• Edna Ferber^[17]
• Herb Gardner^[11]
• Larry Gelbart^[18]
• Joel Gersmann^[19]
• Josh Greenfeld^[20]
• Oscar Hammerstein II^[21]
• Otto Harbach^[2]
• Yip Harburg^[22]
• Moss Hart^[23]
• Ben Hecht^[24]
• Lillian Hellman^[25]
• Peretz Hirshbein^[26]
• Israel Horovitz^[27]
• George Jessel^[28]
• George S. Kaufman^[23]
• Sidney Kingsley^[29]
• Tony Kushner^[30]
• James Lapine^[31]
• Arthur Laurents^[32]
• H. Leivick^[33]
• Alan Jay Lerner^[34]
• Ira Levin^[35]
• Craig Lucas^[36]
• David Mamet^[37]
• Donald Margulies^[38]
• Arthur Miller^[39][40]
• Cheryl Moch
• Becky Mode^[41]
• Itamar Moses
• Clifford Odets^[42][43]
• Carl Reiner^[44]
• Elmer Rice^[45]
• Morrie Ryskind^[46]
• Peter Sagal^[47][48]
• Rod Serling^[49]
• Irwin Shaw^[50]
• Wallace Shawn^[51]
• Sidney Sheldon^[52]
• Martin Sherman^[53]
• Neil Simon^[54]
• Isaac Bashevis Singer^[55]
• Joey Soloway, playwright, television writer^[56]
• Aaron Sorkin (born 1961), screenwriter, producer and playwright^[57]
• Gertrude Stein
• Joseph Stein^[58]
• Louise Stern^[59]
• Jeffrey Sweet^[60]
• Chaim Towber^[61]
• Alfred Uhry^[62]
• Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006), playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University; recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama^[63]
• Jerome Weidman^[64]
• Franz Werfel^[65]
• Norman Wexler, screenwriter of Saturday Night Fever, Joe, Serpico, Mandingo

See also

• Literature portal

• List of Jewish American authors
• List of Jewish American poets
• Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
• Before Columbus Foundation

References

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5. JM Appel Phoning Home University of South Carolina Press 2014
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8. "All About Jewish Theatre - News". Archived from the original on 2006-05-12. Retrieved 2006-05-18. "It was staged by the young David Belasco, a Sephardic Jew..."
9. Liukkonen, Petri. "Saul Bellow". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 24 April 2006.
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14. "Edward Einhorn - Novelist, Playwright, Director". www.edwardeinhorn.com.
15. "The celebrated actress-playwright, born to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, sees herself as “a Jewish being. My mother looked like Doris Day. I was a dead ringer for Anne Frank. I came out Jewish.”"
16. Archived 2006-07-21 at the Wayback Machine "Harvey Fierstein, nice Jewish boy from Bensonhurst, dressed in holiday finery..."
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20. "He, Josh Greenfeld, was a Jewish writer from Greenwich Village."
21. "When American Jewish songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Oklahoma!, they were, Felstiner argues, doing what all children of immigrant parents do: desiring to possess the new land."
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30. "The gay, Jewish socialist raised in Louisiana and educated at Columbia and NYU most enjoys addressing audiences that are receptive to ideas for change and progress."
31. "JewishAmThea". Archived from the original on 2006-09-02. Retrieved 2006-05-18. "finest Jewish playwrights, including Elizabeth Swados, William Finn and James Lapine, Herb Gardner..."
32. "...the creation of Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, and Stephen Sondheim: four gay Jewish men, all working at the very top of their craft." "Laurents also writes extensively on being gay, Jewish, left-wing..."
33. "MET's Past Productions: The Golem - Notes on the Play". Archived from the original on 2006-05-11. Retrieved 2006-05-18.
34. "JewishAmThea". Archived from the original on 2006-09-02. Retrieved 2006-05-18.
35. "Celebrities". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2006-05-18. "Dickens wasn’t Jewish, in case you were wondering. But Bette just did a remake of The Stepford Wives, based on the novel by Ira Levin, who is."
36. "Besides the mainstage premiere of a major new work by acclaimed Jewish playwright Craig Lucas..."
37. "David Mamet is a Jewish writer, though until recently few accounts of his life or work suggested as much..."
38. "he was Donald Margulies, the darling of regional theater, the state-sanctioned "Jewish American Playwright""
39. "Let's have a look. Miller, like myself, (and like Ed Siegel) is a Jewish-American, meaning, simply..."
40. Chametzky, Jules; Felstiner, John; Flanzbaum, Hilene; Hellerstein, Kathryn (2001). Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 558. ISBN 9780393048094.
41. "Best Theater 2000". 17 May 2001. Archived from the original on December 16, 2007 – via www.time.com.
42. "National Yiddish Book Center - Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays Ellen Schiff, editor". Archived from the original on 2006-05-24. Retrieved 2006-05-18. "...introduced the work of Jewish playwrights Aaron Hoffman, Clifford Odets, and Paddy Chayefsky to contemporary audiences..."
43. Chametzky, Jules; Felstiner, John; Flanzbaum, Hilene; Hellerstein, Kathryn (2001). Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 451. ISBN 9780393048094.
44. "But consider the milieu the show's Jewish creator, Carl Reiner, was trying to portray: the heavily Jewish New York comedy scene out of which came Your Show..."
45. "All About Jewish Theatre - Elmer Rice Revival Now Off-Broadway". Archived from the original on 2006-05-12. Retrieved 2006-05-18. "Elmer Rice, nee Reizenstein, an American/Jewish writer of the ‘20s and ‘30s, did not necessarily focus on Jewish characters and issues..."
46. Archived 2005-05-26 at the Wayback Machine "George and Ira Gershwin team up with another Jewish team—George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind..."
47. Kaplan, Ron. "NJ native hosts game show with twist of the news". New Jersey Jewish News Life and Times Feature. New Jersey Jewish News. Archived from the original on 20 September 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
48. "Peter Sagal". Dramatic Publishing. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
49. "Rod was Jewish and that doesn't necessarily mean that it should have meant more..."
50. "JCR-UK - Amis and the Oriental in Swansea - Article by H. Pollins". Archived from the original on 2007-05-30. Retrieved 2006-05-18. "Amis and I often talked about Jewish matters, such as novels by American Jews, like Irwin Shaw – that dates it."
51. JUF : Tweens : Celebrities : Wallace Shawn Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine
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53. "Martin Sherman". Archived from the original on 2005-02-12. Retrieved 2006-05-18.""Being Jewish and being gay are the most important parts of me," he explains, "and they’re the DNA in my bones.""
54. "Broadway Bound is the least known play of prolific Jewish playwright Neil Simon’s trio of comical semi-autobiographical dramas."
55. "Isaac Bashevis Singer". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
56. Soloway — "One aspect of herself that Soloway reveals in her book, due out in paperback next month (published by Free Press), is that she, a self-described "Jewess," feels a sisterly solidarity with Monica Lewinsky, as well as Chandra Levy"
57. Sorkin — Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine "...says the Jewish Sorkin..."
58. "350th Play List".
59. "Deaf writer shines at RADAR festival". Hearing Times. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
60. All About Jewish Theatre - The Sins of the Father, Another Holocaust Play Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
61. Zylbercweig, Zalmen. "Lives in the Yiddish Theatre. Short biographies of those involved in the Yiddish theatre". Museum of Family History. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
62. "PerformInk Online". Archived from the original on 2006-03-19. Retrieved 2006-05-18. "I’ve probably come late to the party accepting, and being proud of, the fact that I’m Jewish. But I’m here. Am I an observant Jew? No. Maybe I’ll get there."
63. Wasserstein — "“My father loved me dearly, but I’m not a Jewish American Princess,” playwright Wendy Wasserstein said. “I’m a Jewish mother, but I’m not Molly Goldberg.”"
64. ABC-CLIO. "ABC-CLIO/Greenwood - Reference - Home". www.greenwood.com.
65. Liukkonen, Petri. "Franz Werfel". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 24 April 2006.