Is this show still funny after so many years? Well, it helps if you’re Jewish

After nearly 60 years, the legendary revue You Don’t Have To Be Jewish is being revived in Sydney. Director RUTH FINGRET tells STEVE MEACHAM the secret of its appeal.

The day Goldstein met God in heaven, he posed an apt question: are we Jews still your chosen people?

Of course, boomed God.

Well, Goldstein replied, could you please choose someone else?

That joke is at least 55 years old. It first appeared on an extraordinary record (remember those?) in 1965, at the height of Beatlemania, called You Don’t Have To Be Jewish.

For many Jewish families – including the US and Australia – it became a regular highlight of the week, replayed over and over again despite everyone knowing the punchlines.

Bob Booker, now 91 and living in California, put the tightly written album together after lunchtime meetings with other Jewish comedians, including Zero Mostel - the first person to sing If I Was A Rich Man on Broadway, in Fiddler On The Roof.

It is still hilarious, like an evening with the late Spike Milligan, poking good-humoured but acerbic fun at the culture the authors loved and counted as their own.

Now, for the first time, a stage version of You Don’t Have To Be Jewish will appear in Sydney, following a raft of productions in the US. The latest, in Los Angeles and Miami, were directed by Emmy and Tony winner Jay Scott Greenspan, or as he’s known professionally, Jason Alexander (George in Seinfeld).

You can still listen to the original recordings on YouTube: The Reading of the Will, the Luncheon, A Call from Long Island, The Plotnik Diamond.