(JTA) — “The Soap Myth,” a play about the widely held belief that the Nazis made soap using the body fat of Jewish corpses, debuted a decade ago Off-Off-Broadway. Now, it’s coming back for a 12-performance run that includes a stop at the Mandell JCC in West Hartford on Wednesday, April 24., 7 p.m. The performance is co-sponsored by the JCC and Voices of Hope.

The four-character show stars Ed Asner as Milton Salzman, a crotchety Holocaust survivor, Tovah Feldshuh (in the first four cities) as Holocaust scholar Esther Feinman and Dee Pelletier (who appeared in the 2012 National Jewish Theater production) as Holocaust denier Benda Goodsen. Liba Vaynberg plays a young Jewish journalist who befriends Milton and Ned Eisenberg, known for a recurring role on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” portrays several characters, including a Catskills comic.

The show will be performed in concert style: there is no set, and the actors sit in place and have scripts in front of them. But the format does little reduce the poignancy of the play or the rage it is likely to engender.

Milton knows that the soap rumors are fact. Feinman contends there is not sufficient proof to say so unequivocally, and that to make a mistake fuels deniers. 

The Mandell JCC is located at 335 Bloomfield Ave. For tickets or more information: (860) 236-4571.

CAP: (l to r) Ed Asner, Liba Vaynberg, Ned Eisenberg and Tovah Feldshuh in a reading of “The Soap Myth” at B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue in New York, Jan. 23, 2019. (Credit: Diane Bondareff)