Jake Ehrenreich's A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, currently running at the American Theatre of Actors through May 28, will transfer to the Lamb's Theatre next month. The show is set to begin performances at its new home on June 7.
An autobiographical musical comedy, A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, featuring Ehrenreich backed by a quartet of musician/singers, tells the story of a young man and his family's quest for the American dream. When Ehrenreich was growing up in Brownsville in the 1960s, he wanted nothing more than to be an American. But his Yiddish-speaking parents, who failed to understand the game of baseball or make sense of rock music, made it difficult for him to feel part of the mainstream culture.
The show, directed by Jon Huberth, opened at the American Theatre of Actors on April 10. Variety's Mark Blankenship wrote of the production: "Perhaps too frequently, A Jew Grows in Brooklyn plays like a poor man's version of Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, aping everything from the slide projections of family photographs to the homey brick-wall set although Joseph Egan has crafted a New York apartment building instead of 700's suburban Long Island home. Even the show's structure feels borrowed, as Ehrenreich moves predictably between mild ribbing of his family and heritage to earnest reflections on the lessons learned from each. But despite the familiar elements, Brooklyn is too scattered to become more than trifling entertainment."
A Jew Grows in Brooklyn features set design by Joseph Egan, costume design by Lisa Ehrenreich, lighting design by Anjeanette Stokes and tsound design by David Ferdinand and One Dream Sound.
