ENTERTAINMENT

‘Jew Grows in Brooklyn’ at Bickford Sunday

BILL NUTT
CORRESPONDENT

When Jake Ehrenreich decided to call his one-man autobiographical show “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn,” he knew the title alone would make people smile.

But the actor and singer also wants to elicit other responses – sighs, laughs, and even a few tears.

“I’ve always been a musician and an entertainer,” says Ehrenreich. “But I’d like to burn the candle a little more brightly. I’d like to affect people.”

His own life is likely to have that sort of impact. “My parents and sisters were Holocaust survivors,” Ehrenreich says. “If I can tell my story without having people slit their wrists, I’ll have done something worthwhile.”

Ehrenreich will perform “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn” twice this Sunday at the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum.

The production includes music and anecdotes, punctuated by films and photos from Ehrenreich’s childhood and career.

Ehrenreich has appeared on Broadway (in such shows as “Dancin’ ” and “Barnum”), and he has hosted corporate events and sung commercial jingles.

Before those experiences, he started as a drummer at resorts in the Catskills. “I never did stand-up, but I sat behind comedians like Shecky Greene,” he says. “I picked up a lot from them.”

About 10 years ago, Ehrenreich came up with the idea of turning his autobiography into a stage show. “I wanted to do something uplifting,” he says.

He initially called the production “Growing Up in America;” however, he came to realize that that title was too generic.

“Producer friends saw it in development, and they told me that the name doesn’t mean anything to anyone,” he says.

At the same time, Ehrenreich knew he did not want to limit himself to Jewish audiences. “I knew I wanted to speak to a community and hope word would spread,” he says. “This was a specific story that speaks to everyone.”

Ehrenreich says he wanted “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn” to have comedy. (He jokes that his bar mitzvah photo alone invariably gets laughs.) But he also realized that talking about his family’s experiences with the Holocaust was no laughing matter.

“When I talk about the Holocaust, it comes later in the show,” he says. “By that time, the audience and I are all friends, and they can take it.”

Ehrenreich explains that his parents, Jonah and Bella, came from a wealthy family in Poland.

The family was sent to a work camp in Siberia, where a daughter, Wanda, was born; a second daughter, Joanie, was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany.

After the war, the family moved to Brooklyn, where Jake was born. Though he has many happy tales of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, he also recalls a feeling of staying one step ahead of sorrow, as if his happiness could end at any moment.

In fact, his mother and one of his sisters developed early Alzheimer’s disease, which Ehrenreich attributes to the stress of their experiences during the war. Ehrenreich says that relating their stories to audiences actually helps him deal with those unhappy recollections. “It’s cathartic for me,” he says. “I found out about their past and how they dealt with it.”

“A Jew Grows in Brooklyn” has changed over the past decade, according to Ehrenreich. “I’ve grown tremendously,” he says. “I’ve learned more, which I’ve worked into the show. As the performer, I have the permission of the writer to make changes.”

For example, he has learned the significance of those Catskills resorts where he played drums. “Those were very important to Holocaust survivors,” he says. “That’s where they learned how to laugh again after everything they had been through.”

Ehrenreich hopes that audiences continue to respond to his performance and that they are able to see themselves. “I’m telling a true story,” he says. “I hope the show will make people think of their own lives and their own parents.”

A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN

WHEN: 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum,

6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown

TICKETS: $40, $35 for seniors and Morris Museum members,

$20 for students with ID

INFO: 973-971-3706 or www.bickfordtheatre.org