Jake Ehrenreich: From Brooklyn With Love
Jake Ehrenreich's A Jew Grows in Brooklyn uses musical comedy to explore the author's lifelong quest to feel part of mainstream American culture. A first-generation New Yorker named for grandfathers lost in the Shoah, Jacob Isaac Ehrenreich grew up in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood with Yiddish-speaking parents who didn't know anything about sports or popular music. Interestingly, as an adult, Jake played Ringo in an international tour of Beatlemania! After amassing a long list of Broadway, off-Broadway and concert credits as a performer, Ehrenreich decided to tackle a topic close to his heart: his own background.
From the start, I knew that writing and performing an autobiographical show would require a tremendous leap of faith. In preparation, I traversed six miles of country roads each morning, snow or sleet or rain, for nearly a year and a half. I now live about 60 miles north of Brooklyn, where I grew up. I was sort of like a driven mailman, but my "deliveries" were only for my dad and me. For myself, they were the practices of focusing on the joys of my life and getting strong—emotionally and physically—for the inevitable challenges I would face. For my dad, it was simply a visit each morning my route passed by his home to check on his battle with Parkinson's disease, and to remind him of those who love him—his eight-year-old grandson, his son, daughter-in-law and wife.
Now I find myself telling my family's story seven times a week I take the extra performance off to actually be with my family. From my parents' Holocaust survival to my struggle for genuine "American" status, it's a journey I re-live nightly. In some strange way I feel like I'm simply along for the ride; the show seems to have developed a life of its own. Maybe all shows do. I remember my general manager saying early on, "This show just wants to sell!", as if the show were some sort of "entity" from a Star Trek episode.
Now it's a "hit"…how?
There are the inevitable Billy Crystal 700 Sundays comparisons. I remember going to see Billy's show; I almost fell out of my seat… "Oh no, he's using slides and video! But I just wrote this show!" Luckily, a friend sitting next to me put it in perspective: "Shmuck, you should only be so lucky that anyone mentions you in the same breath with Billy Crystal!" He was right, of course, and although our shows are very different mine is a musical and deals with the Holocaust and we exist in an entirely different professional universe, I'm incredibly grateful for the comparisons.
I'm settling in for a long run now; I let the audience interact with me, which helps keep each performance fresh. The informal format of some sections allows me to continue to be free and make changes. I'm grateful for reviewers who have been so kind to us this is certainly not a traditional theater piece, but mostly for loving audiences who have given us their incredible loyalty.
A short story: James Jennings is a real "theater-phile" his office is filled with Playbills from the 1940s and onward and runs the American Theater of Actors on West 54th Street, where we began in March we're now at the beautiful Lambs Theater on West 44th Street. He searched me out after a performance and commented that he saw people leaving the theater emotionally moved by their experience. "That is what theater is all about!" he exclaimed. It reminded me of a conversation I had many years ago with the late, great jazz trumpeter Harry Hall. "What is jazz?" I asked. "Jazz is playing with joy," he explained.
So, before each show, I remind myself to go out and have some fun. And why not? Hey, I've got a big banner hanging in Times Square with my name on it—and I'm having the time of my life!