Here There Are Blueberries Cast on Bringing a Haunting True Story to Broadway

Here There Are Blueberries, a startling piece of documentary theater by Tectonic Theater Project's Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, is officially open at Broadway's Barrymore Theatre. The play dramatizes the real-life findings of archivist Rebecca Erbelding as she unravels the mysteries behind an Auschwitz photo album depicting Holocaust perpetrators. The ensemble cast, all of whom play multiple roles, features two-time Tony winner Michael Cerveris, Scott Barrow, Michelle Beck, Kathleen Chalfant, Delia Cunningham, Brandon Flynn, Montego Glover and Conrad Ricamora. On opening night, Broadway.com spoke with the cast and creative team about how audiences are reacting to this urgent new work.

“Here There Are Blueberries is just an incredibly expansive play that can hold the moment in time that we perform it in each time we perform it,” says Cunningham, who makes her Broadway debut as Erbelding and others. “It changes tremendously based on our audiences, what happens in the world. It's because it's a mirror and our audiences come and they really look into that mirror.”

Ricamora returns to Broadway as Tilman Taube and others after originating the role of Abraham Lincoln in Oh, Mary!, which earned him a Tony nomination. Referring to Cole Escola’s hit comedy, Ricamora says, “We heard the audience from beginning to end. They were laughing hysterically. But I've never done a drama where I've heard audible gasps from the audience because they're learning in real time what the characters are learning as well.”

“Recently—we had the incredible honor—19 Holocaust survivors came and watched the play. When they see these pictures, they all say the same thing, ‘Let people see them for themselves,'" says Gronich, who has been developing Blueberries with Kaufman for over a decade. “They want [audiences] to see what these pictures reveal to us about the perpetrators and about this history that we thought we knew.”

Glover is a Tony nominee for Memphis and most recently appeared on Broadway as an alternate for Audra McDonald in Gypsy. The theater vet says Blueberries has been unlike any other project she’s taken on. “It has felt like the most honorable, hallowed, sacred, communal experience. Every single person since the first preview has been so willing to go with us and we have felt it. We've had this experience night after night with them in a way that I think is so fulfilling, informative and enriching. It reminds us of our collective humanity,” she says. “If you have a true detective inside of you, if you are a truly curious person, you belong at the Barrymore.”

Hear more from the cast and creative team, including Kaufman, Barrow, Beck, Cerveris, Chalfant and Flynn, in the video below.

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