A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Crossing Delancey

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  3w, 2m

Susan Sandler

In this charming romantic comedy, which inspired the Golden Globe-nominated 1988 film, a young Jewish woman seeks love in New York City. With the help of her irascible grandmother, she struggles to choose between a handsome, successful author and a gentle, unpretentious pickle vendor.

Crossing Delancey

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 2m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Romantic Comedy
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Appropriate for all audiences

Details

Summary
Isabel is a modern young woman who lives alone and works in a book shop. When she is not pining after a handsome author, she is visiting her grandmother (Bubbe) in Manhattan's Lower East Side. This irascible granny and her friend the matchmaker have found a "good catch" for Isabel, whose initial reluctance gives way to a blossoming romance when she finally meets Sam, the pickle vendor, as the end of the play offers a new beginning.

History
Crossing Delancey premiered off-Broadway at the Jewish Repertory Theatre on April 25, 1985. Directed by Pamela Berlin, the production featured Melanie Mayron, Sylvia Kauders and Jacob Harran. In 1988, Warner Bros. released a film adaptation of the play, directed by Joan Micklin Silver and starring Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, Jeroen Krabbé and Sylvia Miles.
Keywords
Performing Groups
BUBBIE – A fiesty, sharp-witted woman in her eighties who immigrated to the United States as a young girl and has lived ever since in the shrinking community of New York City known as the Lower East Side.
ISABELLE – "Izzy" Grossman, her granddaughter, in her late twenties, a bookish dreamer.
HANNAH – A very large woman in her fifties, a professional matchmaker, a wheeler-dealer.
TYLER – A well-known writer of fiction, handsome, exceedingly charming and self-involved, in his early forties.
SAM – A pickleman and a poet, an inhabitant of the Lower East Side, in his early thirties, gentle, intuitive, appealing and very wise for his years.
  • Time Period Present Day, 1980s
  • Setting New York City. 1985.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes / Street Clothes
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

“Warm, heartfelt... an engrossing treatise on familial love, the sting of loneliness and how sometimes we must reach into the past to jumpstart the future.” – Portland Mercury

“An amusing romance that tells its unpretentious story believably, rarely trying to make its gag lines, of which there are many, upstage its narration or outshine its heart.” – The New York Times

“A warm and loving addition to the growing body of Jewish dramatic work in this country.” – Jewish Post and Opinion

“A feast for the heart and mind... Crossing Delancey isn't about breaking with tradition; it is about creating new traditions and seeing value in the old ones. It is about telling the story you want to tell with a little bit of help from those who love and care about you and seeing how your life can change for the better because of something as simple as putting on a new hat.” – Broadway World

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $130 per performance

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Authors

Susan Sandler

Susan Sandler

Susan Sandler’s work as a director and writer spans both non-fiction and fiction, including the screenplay for the Golden Globe-nominated Crossing Delancey (based on her original play) and the award winning Friends At Last starring Kathleen Turner and Sarah Paulson, as well ...

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