Seashells and Deities, Alex Edelman Brings His New Hour to City Center

This weekend, a stage on West 55th Street belongs to a comedian with a question he cannot stop asking.

Alex Edelman brings his new solo show, *What Are You Going to Do*, to the mainstage at New York City Center for three performances, Friday, October 16, through Sunday, October 18. It is a short stop on a long road. The show has already played Steppenwolf in Chicago, Soho Theatre in London and the Pleasance at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

For New York, it is a homecoming of sorts. Edelman's last show, *Just for Us*, played on and off Broadway before it became an HBO special in April 2024. According to City Center's listing, that hour went on to more than 500 performances around the world and earned him a Tony Award, an Emmy for writing and a place on the TIME100 list.

The Question in the Title

*Just for Us* made Edelman's name as a storyteller as much as a joke writer. City Center describes his solo shows as blurring the line between stand-up and narrative. The new one points that skill at a more unsettling subject, which is himself.

Steppenwolf, which sold out a run of *Just for Us* and brought Edelman back for five nights in August, describes it as asking whether he should be doing something else entirely. Should he be saving lives, like his father, a physician? Should he try to get back the sense of community he felt growing up among Israelis and Palestinians? The theater says the show reckons with time spent around trauma and moves through questions of faith, and not only Judaism.

That sounds like a lecture. The listings suggest otherwise. The Edinburgh listing on Chortle promises jokes about seashells, an amputee hospital in Jerusalem, various deities and what any one person owes the world in the middle of a global conflict.

What the Critics Saw

Poppy Shulman reviewed the London run for Jewish News on July 3. She heard material about his work as a clown in a children's hospital in Israel, his seashell collection, a trip to Graceland and a Christian pilgrimage. She also noted that it picks up the story of his childhood and his father, a cardiologist. The set touches on autism, which he was tested for as a child, and on antisemitism.

Her verdict was warm. "Ever the consummate professional comedian, he makes it look so simple, but there is immense skill in his show," Shulman wrote. Her bottom line was simple. The new show, she wrote, does not disappoint.

He makes it look so simple, but there is immense skill in his show.

That London set ran about an hour, by Shulman's count. City Center and Steppenwolf both list about 90 minutes, so expect the New York version to stretch out.

A Comic Between Rooms

Edelman has a busy life away from the microphone. City Center notes that he appeared in Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix film *Unfrosted* and stars in Peacock's *The Paper*, the Greg Daniels comedy that the listing calls a spiritual successor to *The Office*. He also writes on that show as a consulting producer.

Edinburgh knows him well. Chortle's listing recalls that *Just for Us* was nominated for best show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards before it crossed to Broadway and HBO.

City Center's mainstage is far bigger than the rooms where *Just for Us* began. That is its own kind of answer to the question in the title.

What to Know Before You Go

ATG Live presents the engagement. *What Are You Going to Do* plays New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets start at $50 with fees, and City Center's Access Club for patrons 40 and under unlocks its own allotment. The show runs about 90 minutes and is recommended for ages 13 and up.

Another comic is telling his own story a few blocks south this month. See our story on Billy Crystal's 860 at the Imperial.

Edelman spends the hour wondering whether he should be somewhere else. For three nights, West 55th Street is the answer.