Another week, another production casting a non-Jewish actor to play a Jewish role.
While Nick Jonas’ casting as Jamie Wellerstein in Jewish composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years” was announced over the summer, the first clip of him singing the soundtrack was released Wednesday. “The Last Five Years,” which will open at the Hudson Theater on March 18, reignited the conversation about whether Jewish actors should always play Jewish characters.
The reaction from the musical theater and Jewish communities was overwhelmingly negative with many commenting on Jonas struggling to hit the notes and some condemning his casting in favor of a Jewish actor.
Should Jewish actors play Jewish characters? Let’s unpack.
Jewishness in “The Last Five Years”
Brown’s production is inspired by the real-life disintegration of his marriage with the very-Jewish Jamie being a stand-in for the very-Jewish Brown.
Since “The Last Five Years” initially debuted in 2001, the role of Jamie has only been played by two Jewish actors: Adam Kantor in the 2013 Off-Brodaway revival and Jeremy Jordan in the 2014 film adaptation.
“The Last Five Years” works in dual timelines as Jamie tells his story forward throughout the relationship, his estranged wife Cathy Hiatt (played by actress Adrienne Warren in the upcoming Broadway production) tells her story backward. The show opens with Cathy reading a “Dear Jane” letter from Jamie while his story begins with their first date.
Jamie later sings a song called “Shiksa Goddess” about Cathy, commenting that he’s happy to date her “Just as long as you’re not from Hebrew school” because “hey, hey, Shiksa Goddess I’ve been waiting for someone like you.”
Jamie then lists all the Jewish women he’s rejected:
“I’ve been wading through Danica Schwartz
“And Erica Weiss
“And the Handleman twins
“I’ve been wading through Heather Greenblatt
“Annie Mincus, Karen Pincus, and Lisa Katz
“And Stacy Rosen and Ellen Kaplan and Julie Silber and Janie Stein
“I’ve had Shabbas dinners on Friday nights
“With every Shapiro in Washington Heights”
Before following it up with this iconic line:
“I’ve been wandering through the desert
“I’ve been beaten, I’ve been hit
“My people have suffered for thousands of years
“And I don’t give a shit.”
This is all followed up with Jamie telling Cathy, “I’m your Hebrew slave at your service.” If you’re getting the idea that Jamie’s Jewishness is one of the key elements of his character (and one of the key reasons he dates Cathy to begin with), you’d be right. Jamie continues to expound upon his Jewishness in the Yiddishkeit “Shmuel Song,” in which he shows his support for Cathy through a story of a struggling tailor in an Eastern European shtetl.
The idea of Nick Jonas, or any non-Jewish actor, performing these songs, has been troubling to many Jews. The character itself has been criticized for decades as an antisemitic stereotype, even though Brown wrote Jamie off of his own experiences.
One of Brown’s other musicals, “Parade” won a Tony Award last year for best revival of a musical. “Parade” details the 1913 trial and 1915 lynching of Jewish man Leo Frank. His bar mitzvah musical, “13” was also made into a movie in 2022.
Read more: 10 Jewish characters from Broadway musicals you should know
What were the criticisms of Nick Jonas’ performance?
The clip shared showed Jonas singing “Moving Too Fast,” a jazzy number in which Jamie expresses his awe toward his newly-found literary success at just 24 (some of us are still waiting for that).
It’s an emotional, quick-paced song that requires a broad range and the ability to express their emotions in the challenging number. Many found that Jonas was straining and struggling with the broad range for the song. Others criticized Jonas for being flat, consistently missing the notes.
“I find it genuinely impossible to believe that Nick Jonas was even the best stunt casting they could do for this production,” one person wrote on X.
One critic felt that it was karma for the Jamie character that Jonas was outshined by his co-star. “He is fully outmaneuvered and outclassed. As a Jamie hater I kind of like this,” they said.
Another mocked Jonas’ struggle to sing the song by commenting, “the last five years is gonna have to replace nick jonas with lea michele, aren’t they?” in reference to “Funny Girl” recasting Beanie Feldstein after mixed reviews of her vocals.
“i was trying to be optimistic about this casting… this didn’t help,” a commenter added.
Others shared their worry for other renditions by Jonas, particularly the Jewish songs, in the upcoming musical.
“Just thought about Nick Jonas singing The Schmuel Song and got sick to my stomach,” one wrote.
“This is the 2nd most anti semitic thing I’ve seen this week,” a commenter quipped, likely referencing Elon Musk’s gesture at Donald Trump’s inauguration that has been labeled a Nazi salute by many.
One theater lover simply pleaded, “Jeremy Jordan help us.”
Should non-Jews play Jewish characters?
The general rule of thumb (as illustrated by the casting of Scarlett Johanson in the anime film, “Ghost in the Shell”) is that minority roles are only allowed to be played by that minority. Jews, however, have been excepted from this norm.
While some people say that anyone should be able to portray a Jewish character, others feel that today’s norm of playing one’s own identity not being applied to Jewish characters is a double standard.
Comedian David Baddiel, the author of “Jews Don’t Count,” expressed the latter point of view in an op-ed for the Guardian.
Read more: Should non-Jews play Jewish roles in Hollywood?
For Baddiel, the issue is all about treating the Jewish community with the same respect that other minorities are given.
When it comes to other minorities, the thinking is that “there is something disrespectful…about casting an able-bodied actor in a disabled part, or a cis actor in a trans part, and so on,” Baddiel explained. “The deaf actor Marlee Matlin expressed this well when she said: ‘Deaf is not a costume.’”
By likening non-Jews playing Jews to an able-bodied actor playing a person with disabilities, he emphasized a lack of respect. The able-bodied actor does not know the true experience of having a disability, just like a non-Jewish actor does not know the lived experience of being a Jew.
For Baddiel, if the actor playing a Jewish character cannot truly understand what they are playing, they are doing a disservice to Jewish culture and history. They do not know what the value of the story they are telling might be to someone else, showing a carelessness for Jewish topics.
Others believe that Jews should play Jewish characters so that they are portrayed authentically on-screen. As television is many peoples’ only exposure to Jewish life, some argue that having non-Jews play Jewish roles runs the risk of playing up and reinforcing Jewish stereotypes.
The Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman expressed this point of view, and she even coined the term, “Jew-face” for the inauthentic portrayal of Jewish characters by non-Jewish actors.
“There’s this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just playing people who happen to be Jewish, but people whose Jewishness is their whole being,” she said. “[Jew-face] is defined as when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and center, often with makeup or changing of features — big fake nose, all the New Yorkie or Yiddish inflection.”
What’s the counterpoint? On the other side of the debate, some support minorities playing minority roles with the exception of Jews.
Unlike other minorities, Jewish actors are already afforded many roles in Hollywood. Since people of color have historically not been included in mainstream American media, many people see “reserving” roles for them as a way to better incorporate diverse stories into media. Many people I know share the sentiment that because Jews already have so many roles, they do not need to be “saved spots” in this way.
Others reject the whole idea of only playing one’s own identity. They think that anyone should be able to play any role in order to tell the best story. Scarlett Johannson shared this view, saying in an interview, “[A]s an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job . . . I feel art should be free of restrictions.”
Originally Published Jan 23, 2025 07:49AM EST
