The Jackie Mason Musical at Empire Stage

Both Sides of a Famous Love Affair -
The Jackie Mason Musical
January 26-February 5, 2017

"....an astonishing show that was touching, yet hilarious. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh, terrific musical numbers, and an entertaining show!  Rating: 5 Stars”
Daniel Yusum – The Examiner

In 1988 in Florida’s Dade County, Ginger Reiter sued comedian Jackie Mason for paternity, claiming he was the father of her daughter Sheba. She won. Reiter went on become a high school English teacher in South Florida, and raised her daughter on her own (Mason did pay child support until Sheba turned 18). But she also had a story to tell, and a unique one at that. Both Sides of a Famous Love Affair - The Jackie Mason Musical is Reiter’s light-hearted, laughter-filled musical recounting of her relationship with Mason, starring the result of that much contested union - her daughter Sheba Mason.

Both Sides of a Famous Love Affair: The Jackie Mason Musical will run at Empire Stage in Ft. Lauderdale from January 26th through February 5, 2017. The production had an extremely successful run Off Broadway
and last January at Empire Stage.

Reiter’s tale begins at The Rascal House Deli on Miami’s Collins Avenue in 1977, where Mason – a renowned 46 year old comedian (David R. Gordon), spots a pretty young college girl, Ginger (Sheba Mason plays her mother). Along for the ride is her overbearing mother, Mrs. Olivier (Cherrill Rae), who engineers the entire affair – even down to a black negligee. Romance does bloom, and Mason woos Ginger each time he visits South Florida. The problem is that Jackie is pursuing several other women at the same time, including a ravishing young Latina waitress Trixie (Yanet Felipe) and Rosa (Fern Katz), a senior citizen waitress with attitude. Ginger becomes pregnant, Jackie denies his paternity, and a complicated relationship ensues.

The musical’s original score, written by Ginger Reiter, the woman in the eye of this comedic storm includes “Ode to the Early Bird Special” and “I Never Met This Yenta”.  Along with Mason, Gordon, Rae, Felipe, and Katz,the musical’s cast of includes New York actor Scott Travis as Wooley the Schlepalong, JohnBarry Green as Nelson Zee ‘the Enraged Fan’. Musical direction will be by Kelly Olson, and Reiter, who also wrote the script, will direct the production. ?
Sheba Mason's first stage role at the age of two was as a prop in one of her mother’s plays. Raised in Boca Raton, she is a stand-up comic. Her home base is in the New York comedy clubs, including The Broadway Comedy Club, The New York Comedy Club, The Comic Strip and Funny Bones. Sheba is often a guest on the Artie Lang Show, and recently starred in a Rearview Films web series debuting in March 2016 called "Non-Disclosure". Sheba has been performing as her mother Ginger in the Off Broadway version of The Jackie Mason Musical since 2013. 

Ginger Reiter is a former Wellington High School English teacher who quit teaching to focus full-time on managing the musicals and comedies she writes. Other plays include 700 Wives The Musical - Solomon's Saga (Off Off Broadway), and Mel Schwartz Sleeps with Mae West, which will open in New York in 2016. She performs a one-woman show "Schtick with The Matriarchs" throughout the Florida Condo Circuit and is married to Manny Silver - the world's only Cantor/Celebrity-Impressionist.  She claims that Jackie Mason was more than a love - he was "an experience and an education" - and riotously funny off stage.