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J.A.P. CHRONICLES, THE MUSICALPerry Street Theater, 31 Perry St.; (212) 868-444. Through Sunday.
DON'T worry: The title of Isabel Rose's musical, "J.A.P. Chronicles, the Musical," doesn't mean what you think. It stands for "Jewish American Powerhouse."
Whatever. Based on her novel, the show is essentially a solo concert in which the writer/performer plays six characters, all Jewish women who have gathered for a reunion of the summer camp they attended as teenagers.
But one of them, Ali Cohen, has an agenda. Now a successful independent filmmaker, she intends to turn her cameras on her former campmates, hoping to humiliate them in return for the torment they inflicted on her years earlier.
Along the way she discovers her subjects have problems of their own.
Rose, who co-wrote and starred in the film "Anything But Love," is an attractive and appealing performer. But she's unable to differentiate among her characters, who generally come across as a compendium of clichés. And songs like "J.A.P.P.Y. Rhymes With Happy" and "Wedding Planning Is Such Fun" don't exactly bring new dimensions to her subject.
One number in particular, "Jewish American Powerhouse (The J.A.P. Rap)," provides further evidence, if any were needed, that there be an immediate moratorium on white people performing mock hip-hop numbers for comic effect.
Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
