A Jew Grows in Brooklyn's Ehrenreich In Manhattan

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with my latest assignment….to interview Jake Ehrenreich, star and creator of his one-man show, A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN. The title of this interview could have been A NICE CATHOLIC BOY MEETS A NICE JEWISH BOY, especially after seeing the show and talking with and getting to know the man behind this wonderful show.

Having played a sold-out limited engagement at the American Theatre of Actors, A Jew Grows in Brooklyn moved off-Broadway to The Lamb's Theatre (130 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Sixth Ave) this past June 7th. First, before we get into the interview, let me talk a little about the show. First of all, don't let the title fool you. Whether you are Jewish or not, you will enjoy the journey that Ehrenreich takes you on during the show. From gut wrenching comedy to the sincere sentimentality and honesty of baring his soul on stage, there is something for everyone in A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN. Whether you're Jewish or not, this performance will be an entertaining not to mention learning experience about another section of the great American melting pot. It will tickle you funny bone and touch your heart. Some people have compared this show to Billy Crystal's 700 SUNDAYS, which I personally have not seen.

This is the story of Ehrenreich's life and the history of his family coming to America in pursuit of the American dream, told with a winning combination of humor and sincerity. Told with a combination of dialogue and music (from rock to lounge to Yiddish traditional), his personal connection and conversational rapport with the audience is truly magical. Like the Pied Piper, you can't help but follow him around as he travels to the multiple destinations of his life and feel like you were actually growing up with him. Ehrenreich delivers the goods and captures you in his world from the word go.

Jake Ehrenreich has appeared on Broadway in DANCIN', BARNUM and THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG, and toured internationally as Ringo in BEATLEMANIA. His off-Broadway performances include the title role for Joseph Papp in JONAH at the Public Theater, SONGS OF PARADISE, THE GOLDEN LAND, and the rock review A HOT MINUTE AT THE BOTTOM LINE in NYC. He has performed with such diverse artists as Richie Havens, Tito Puente, Greg Allman, Cab Calloway, John Davidson, The Smothers Brothers, Fats Domino, and Del Shannon.

A first generation American, he was born Jacob Isaac Ehrenreich in Brooklyn, NY, he was named for his grandfathers lost in the Shoah. His parents (Jojne and Bala,) and two sisters (Golda and Jochevet) arrived in the US in 1949. The show is dedicated to them. So, on with the interview…

TJ:  First off, I have to say that the show is truly wonderful. It was so honest and funny and at times, brought a tear to my eye. With some of the subject matter, such as your parents and their lives during the Holocaust, this could have been a tough project. But you presented a myriad of life experiences which had such a great balance.

EHRENREICH: I could have written the saddest show in the world but I really wanted to talk about the joys of my life. We all have that in our lives. If you can get people to laugh, then you open them and they are prepared for some of the other stuff. I tried to format the show so you would get it and come away from it with a good memory. The Holocaust was a terrible thing, but that wasn't my whole life and it wasn't even my parent's whole life. They came here and had children and life went on.

TJ: Your rapport with the audience, the one on one interaction, was so personal and genuine.

EHRENREICH: Well, I realized that people were coming to see this show and it was going to go on and on, so, I thought "How do you keep it fresh?" And it's such a personal show. So I decided that when people talk to me, I am going to talk back to them. That really allows me to stay on my toes. It allows me to know who's out there. Being personal really works for me. It helps me to go on. Doing two shows in a day like today (Saturday)…seven shows a week. How do you do that and keep your energy up? The personal relationship with the audience is revitalizing.

TJ: I can see that. There was the section about the Catskills and the whole audience was coming at you with their responses. That was amazing. Does that happen at every show?

EHRENREICH: Oh yeah. But today, we didn't get any bark mitzvahs.

TJ: Ok, hold the presses…a bark mitzvah? That's a real thing???

EHRENREICH: Absolutely! 85% of the time, people have heard of it. I had someone this week that did it at Duke University. I didn't make it up. It's crazy but the pictures are real. This is the most hysterical thing I have ever seen!!!

TJ: Was this part of the show when you originally wrote it?

EHRENREICH: It was. When I first wrote the show, it was eight hours long and I put in all the funny things and all the sad things that I thought would be interesting. When I had to trim it down, I kept that because it was so unusual and so odd but it's real. And, of course, people crack up.

TJ: Is it hard for you to talk about the emotional stuff? The real personal things?

EHRENREICH: Each night is a little different. I turn to watch my father on the video and he looks, in a certain way, the same to me but in other ways very different. I saw him this morning and he can barely walk now. He's got his brain with him…he's totally here. But I look at him and it reminds me I don't know how much more time we have with my dad.

TJ: How old is he?

EHRENREICH: He's eighty seven and he's got really bad Parkinson's. He has not been able to come see the show in Manhattan. He saw it about a year ago when it was in development not far from the house. That was pretty cool.

TJ: Have your wife and kid seen the show?

EHRENREICH: Oh, yeah. They see it all the time. My son could do the show.

TJ: What do they think about Dad up there doing his stuff?

EHRENREICH: My son, when he's here, comes up when I'm taking my bow. He comes running up and I pick him up. It's great! My son loves it. He had written for Father's Day all these cards and in each one was "So proud you're doing the show," and all that. My wife is proud as well, but I make an important point, especially with my son, that what's important about this is not really whether the show is successful. It's that I had a goal I wanted to achieve and I tried it. Whether or nor people came or whether or not it became a hit, we're very fortunate that it became what it became. The point for him to learn was if you have a dream or you have something like a goal, you try it. Put your intention in it. That's when it's successful. Even if it wasn't "successful", it was successful because you tried. And I think he has gotten that. The other day, he learned to swim and he said, "Ah, sweet victory!". So, yeah, he gets it and that was just great to see.

TJ: How long did it take you to write the show?

EHRENREICH: My wife says, "My whole life." I knew for a long time that I was going to do a show. I would say once I sat down to start writing it about a year to get to development with fixing it and all that stuff. It was sitting down writing every day and figuring out what I was going to do. I didn't know what it was going to be in the beginning. I just started writing.

TJ: But your intention was to have music with the show?

EHRENREICH: Absolutely. Music is very important to me. I was a musician for most of my life. Certainly, I knew there would be not only music, but different kinds of music. Everything from rock to standards to Yiddish…all of the things I really dealt with in my life. I wanted to do all of that because it was really part of the material. I loved Yiddish music, which my mother has sung to me. Those were the first songs I had ever heard. Then I wanted to get as far away from that as I could and now I have come, sort of, full circle. It all works for me now.

TJ: When was the first time you performed the show?

EHRENREICH: The first performance in Manhattan was March 24th. The first performance was May of last year.

TJ: So this is an open-ended run?

EHRENREICH: We'll actually be moving. They're closing down the Lamb.

TJ: Wow, that's too bad. The space is perfect for this show. The intimacy and the closeness of the audience….

EHRENREICH: I love the Lamb. It's my favorite off-Broadway theatre ever! It's so intimate and just a great place to perform this show.

TJ: So when does it close?

EHRENREICH: September 17th will be our last show there and we'll be moving. Now, we're looking at some different places that will be available to us. We're going to go bigger, because going to a smaller venue doesn't make any sense.

TJ: How have the houses been for each show? Pretty full, like tonight?

EHRENREICH: Yeah, usually in the 200-300 hundreds. And sometimes I wonder, "Where are all these people coming from?". But you saw the people that wait to see me after the show? These people feel obligated to call and tell their friends that they have to go see this show, which is a gift. You don't have to say anything. They just feel personally they have to have their friends come see the show, which I love. That's why I come down after the show to talk to people in the lobby. People wait for you to talk about the show. It just feels so different from a regular Broadway show where people will wait outside the stage door.

TJ: Well, you make such a connection with the audience during the show. People feel like they know you by the end. When I was watching people crowd around you in the lobby waiting to talk to you and listening to them talking to you, it was apparent…they got it. They got the whole show.

EHRENREICH: Last night, a woman came up to me. She said, "I'm Irish Catholic and I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the show. I totally got it." And I thought that was just great. And that happens very often. We all have heritage and they come up so often after the show to thank me for everything. Like I said, they get it!!

TJ: You are a great musician, by the way. What was the first instrument you ever played?

EHRENREICH: The drums.

TJ: Yes, I can see that. You really cooked on those drums tonight!

EHRENREICH: It's funny how I started to play the drums. I was a smart kid but not a very well-behaved kid. My teacher was a Latin guy and he just took me out into the hallway and taught me how to play the drums. I had been banging on the desk since I was a little kid. This guy taught me how to play the drums and I went way beyond the class and then I became a drummer. It was a fabulous time for me.

TJ: And you play the trumpet too…

EHRENREICH: When I got back into the class, I was already so far ahead of everybody on drums that I talked the teacher into it. I told him I would do the concert on drums but let me learn to play something else.

TJ: Have you had any favorite unexpected moments over the period of time performing the show that have stuck with you?

EHRENREICH: Yeah, actually I incorporated into the show. One of the things I ask is if anyone made furniture from my dad's store. And the guys said, "Yeah, I made a sofa, but I don't have it anymore. But I don't have that wife either." That was hysterical. Then, once this lady's phone kept ringing and she wouldn't turn it off! So, I said, "OK, give me the phone." And I answered it. I happened to be in the bat-mitzvah section of the show. So I told her that she was here but we were in the middle of the show talking about bat-mitzvahs and asked if she had a bat-mitzvah. And people were losing it in the audience! Had a lovely conversation. Most of my favorite things are when people yell out things. It's hysterical. Another one of my favorite moments was when Dr. Ruth Westheimer came to see the show. You know, she's a good sport! I took her up on stage with me and talked about things and she was great.

TJ: Jake, what is it that you would like to see people take with them after seeing this show? Is there any type of message or feeling in particular?

EHRENREICH: Well, watching the people who are seeing the show and seeing them connecting with the show and feeling that my story reminds them of their own stories. But I think the most important thing is what I talk about at the end of the show. We all have challenges in our lives. I have my particular challenges, you have yours….we define what our lives are about by what we tend to think about…focus on…deliberate about everyday. And I'm not saying that you should avoid difficult issues or sweep them under the carpet or anything like that. We can control our lives and if you collectively dwell on the negative, your life is not great. If you deal with the negative and you focus on the positive, like my son and my wife and my life, you have a life worth living. If you're breathing, you can think, "I'm alive. I'm breathing. That's great!" There is something there; you just need to recognize it. All this helps us to love ourselves and each other. And I have to remind myself of this, but I know that I believe in this and hope that the people coming to see the show leave believing this and understanding this too. It's all good.

TJ: You got me, Jake. It's all good. And now, I get to do a regular feature of my interviews called MY FAVORITE THINGS, to help everyone get to know Jake Ehrenreich on a more personal basis. Good to go?

EHRENREICH: Absolutely. Let's go…you're not going to ask me my favorite curse word??

TJ: No, we leave that to James Lipton at the Actors' Studio. How about your favorite time of day?

EHRENREICH: Great question!! Each morning, when I was writing the show, I walked six miles a day in the morning. I would walk around the area where I live for a year and a half. I really like sunset too, but, I am going to stick with the morning. That time of day became very special to me.

TJ: How about your favorite vacation spot?

EHRENREICH: It's between the Caribbean and the Hamptons…but I am going to have to say the Hamptons as that's where my son learned to swim. We love the beach.

TJ: OK, your favorite holiday is?

EHRENREICH: American holiday would be Thanksgiving. But I have a couple of favorite Jewish holidays like Yom Kippur. It's hard to choose one as they all have special meaning.

TJ: And your favorite childhood memory?

EHRENREICH: There are many but there's one that comes to my mind that's always been very strong to me and I think it's the first time I ever laughed this much. It's old because I know where we were living and it was before I started school, so I had to be less than five years old. My sister Joanie and I were jumping on our beds. Underneath the bed, they used to keep shoes in a big box. Both of us fell off the bed into the box and I still remember as the most I have laughed in my life. That must have been major because I must have been three or four years old. A very, very strong memory.

TJ: And finally, what is your ultimate favorite thing?

EHRENREICH: My wife cooks up chicken wings. Then she, my son and I watch a movie in our family room. We do like a little picnic eating chicken wings and watching a movie. It's the greatest!

TJ: Thank you so much for being so open and candid with us, Jake. And continued success to you and the show.

All I can say now is that you can (and should) catch A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN at the Lamb's Theatre (130 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Sixth Ave). Performances are Wednesday – Saturday at 8:00PM with matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 3:00PM. Tickets are $25-$60. For tickets call Telecharge.com, (212) 239-6200. Visit the official website at www.AJewGrowsInBrooklyn.com. So, for now, shalom, my friends. And remember, I have followed my dream and theatre is the word! Ciao!!

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