NEW HAVEN — When Daphna Feygenbaum arrives at the funeral of her beloved grandfather, she arrives thinking it’s obvious she will get the necklace her Poppy carried throughout the Holocaust. After all, she’s the one on the way to rabbinical school in Israel. Her cousin Liam Haber appears with his non-Jewish girlfriend Melody and with a very different plan in mind, however.

In the wake of their grandfather’s death, the cousins — including Liam’s brother Jonah — get together to work out exactly what his legacy means in their own lives. Named the Best Comedy of the Year by The New York Times, Bad Jews is a bold take on the complex relationships everyone has with family, legacy and tradition.

Bad Jews opened for previews on February 18 at Long Wharf Theatre, and will celebrate its formal opening night on Wednesday, February 25. The play, on Long Wharf Stage II, continues the theater’s 50th anniversary season. Oliver Butler is directing Joshua Harmon’s comedy.

The creative team also includes Stephen Strawbridge (light design), Antje Ellermann (set design), Paul Carey (costume design), M.L. Dogg (sound design), Tim Acito (fight director), and Lindsey Turteltaub (production stage manager).

Newtown native Keilly McQuail is starring as Daphna in the production, which will continue until March 22. Bad Jews represents her Long Wharf debut.

McQuail is a 2007 graduate of Newtown High School, and a 2011 graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, “by way of the Atlantic Theatre School,” according to the play’s notes.

She has already performed off-Broadway in You Got Older. Other recent credits Strictly Dishonorable (The Flea), Annie Tippe and Ryann Weir’s Debutante; I’m Miserable but Change Scares Me (New Saloon); Edward Albee’s The Death of Bessie Smith (New Brooklyn); and Brooke Berman’s The Liddy Plays (Crashbox).

She has also developed new works with the Atlantic Theater, Rattlestick, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, and The Bushwick Starr.

Bad Jews also features Christy Escobar as Melody, Max Michael Miller as Jonah Haber, and Michael Steinmetz as Liam Haber.

Performances run to March 22. 

The theater is at 222 Sargent Drive in New Haven. For performance and ticket details, call 203-787-4282 or visit longwharf.org.