A young man, his grandmother, and a cactus star in a new one-man musical in English and a little Yiddish on Theatre Row.
From the host of Radiotopia's Blind Guy Travels podcast, and the creator of text-based Lego-building instructions for blind people, as seen on CBS, NBC, and Reuters, comes a hilarious, heartfelt, surreal one-man musical based on his grandmother's memoirs.
Motl's trying to connect with his elderly grandmother, but she just wants him to read her memoirs and the more he reads, the more their experiences blur and interweave. Armed with his trusty accordion and a pair of tap shoes, Matthew shifrin, the musical's composer and performer, tries to figure out how to get through to a person who's not quite there.
To do this, he'll have to outwit famous historical figures, battle a killer cactus, and navigate the labyrinthine aisles of everyone's favorite grocery store. “I created this musical to honor my grandmother, a person I barely knew; she was suffering from Dementia when I was growing up, so my only way to connect with her was through the Yiddish songs we sang together,” Shifrin says.
“So when I sat down to write this musical, I thought it could be in Yiddish; Unfortunately, Yiddish braille didn't exist, so I created it with the help of a Braille-making company. How cool is that!”
Made possible through a Jewish Boston arts grant and first premiered at the Boston Festival Of New Jewish Music, the musical lasts 45 minutes and will have its NYC premiere on Sunday, November 5th at 2 PM on Theater Row, (410 West 42nd Street, NY, NY, 10030) as part of the United Solo Theater Festival.
Tickets are available at the link below. (click on Bookings and Info next to My Grandma's Mind Is Like An Ocean to purchase a ticket) or by calling 212-714-2442;45.
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