In their 14th year of showcasing world-renowned artists in a vibrant celebration of the performing arts, the Chutzpah! Festival has unveiled another amazing the line-up of electrifying music, riveting theatre and breath-taking dance scheduled for presentation from February 22 – March 9, 2014.

The Festival’s popular multi-faceted dance programming kicks off with a full evening of international dance, featuring a World Premiere by Hofesh Shector and Canadian Premieres by Richard Siegal and Barak Marshall, danced by LA-based BODYTRAFFIC and praised by the San Fransicso Herald as the kind of people you could watch dance anything all night.” Dance continues throughout the festival with international artists ImPerfect Dancers (Italy), Idan Sharabi and Dancers (Israel), Ate9 Dance Company (US/Israel) and new work by Vancouver’s 2013 Clifford E. Lee Award winning choreographer/dancer and Chutzpah! Resident Artist Donald Sales/Project 20.

Internationally-celebrated music at Chutzpah 2014 includes saxophone virtuoso Uri Gurvich and his Ensemble (Israel/US), Russian/American Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin and the Kontraband, Iraqi-Jewish Israeli-based rock musician Dudu Tassa and The Kuwaitis and Vancouver-born emerging artistLandon Braverman & Friends in a cabaret evening of musical theatre. Returning to Vancouver again this year is audience favourite and leading world music pioneers Yemen Blues.

Chutzpah!, partnering with Touchstone Theatre and the Firehall Arts Centre, presents the West Coast premiere of Hirsch. Created by Alon Nashman and Paul Thompson, the story chronicles the life of a Hungarian refugee orphaned by the Holocaust who finds a new home in Canada and becomes a fierce, uncompromising Canadian theatre icon. Performed by veteran actor Alon Nashman, the Ottawa Citizen calls it “a brilliant triumph.” The World Premiere of Tiny Music by BC’s Noah Drew brings to Chutzpah! an original “sound design musical” loosely adapted from Shalom Aleichem’s short story The Fiddle. The show follows Ezra, a 23-year-old “high-functioning” autistic man whose auditory-processing disorder heightens his experience of the sounds around him.   

Comedy is always at its best at Chutzpah! Two-time Emmy winner actress and comedian Judy Gold brings her Off-Broadway hit 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother to the Vancouver Playhouse for one performance only, that anyone with a mother will appreciate. The laughs at Chutzpah! continue with the return of Brad Zimmerman performing in his autobiographical comedy My Son the Waiter, A Jewish Tragedy.

This year Chutpzah!PLUS features  the Canadian premiere of STELLA plus new work from the incomparable Sidra Bell Dance New York in a co-presentation with The Dance Centre (Mar 27-29) and The Idan Raichel Project (May 12) with 10 musicians – his largest ensemble yet to come to Chutzpah!, including new music from his just-released CD, and an opening set by award-winning singer/songwriter, Vancouver’s Babe Gurr. 

Single tickets for Chutzpah! range from $20 to $42 and can be purchased online at chutzpahfestival.com and by phone at the Chutzpah! Box Office: 604-257-5145 or Tickets Tonight Box Office: 604-684-2787.  Chutzi Packs are also available: see 4 different shows of your choice for only $82 (excluding Judy Gold’s 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother and The Idan Raichel Project).