There are big, no HUGE things happening on a little strip of Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. The excitement, quality and professionalism of two neighboring black box theaters – Island City Stage and The Foundry – just keeps on growing. New City Players’ sold-out sensation, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” recently closed at Island City. Meanwhile, Sunday, August 11, was supposed to be closing day for POW!’s (Plays of Wilton) world premiere of A SHONDA: The Musical at The Foundry. But that’s been extended through September 1, having played to sold-out crowds for weeks.
It says something when audiences keep throwing money at producers (now that our governor dropped funding for the arts) and rave so much about a show that they return more than once, friends in tow. Tickets to “A Shonda” are selling so fast that it’s even hard for critics to get seats. Frankly, they don’t need our accolades.
But for someone who sees a lot of theater, being able to say that THIS musical – in addition to being Broadway quality in every aspect – had that extra oomph of keeping me at the edge of my seat with surprising and mesmerizing scenes, is saying a lot. The show reveals blunt truths about how the deeply religious (of any denomination) see “the other” and yet, ironically, are practically identical in their prejudices and condemnation. Meanwhile, both sides celebrate life’s joys through music and dance traditions – whether sacred or secular.
“Shonda”’s lead characters remind us how childhood friendship can exist outside societal labels and how, if we could only keep that innocence, the world be a much better place. How true love between kids, between adults (of any persuasion and sexual orientation), and between parents and their offspring can, if we allow room for growth, break through indoctrination and flower into acceptance and a happier, more peaceful existence for all.
I’ll get off my soapbox now, and hope you’re intrigued enough to learn the basic plot of “A Shonda,” which is Yiddish for “a shameful disgrace.” It’s the ultimate, guilt-inducing accusation. Here it’s frequently employed by an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic sect based in Memphis, Tennessee – a place where country music is king, a large confederate flag hangs prominently at the local bar and their customers tend to favor Trump tee-shirts.
It’s also a place where two young boys – one a Hasidic Jew, the other, a Southern Baptist – first connect through their shared love of fishing, and eventually develop a deep friendship far removed from their respective narrow-minded communities. They grow up, exhibit gay tendencies, and are both sent away by their families and elders to be reprogrammed (cruelly and unsuccessfully). The Jew is dispatched to Yeshiva in Israel; the Baptist to a harsh Christian camp. Of course the only outcome is inducing even more shame, pain, and confusion about who they truly are.
Ronnie Larsen, POW!’s founder, and incredibly productive and celebrated actor-director-playwright-producer, had been contemplating turning Wendy Graf’s 2019 play into a musical for some time, with the award-winning playwright’s blessing. He’d already staged several well-received, original musicals at The Foundry – you might recall “Now and Then,” “Come Out, Come Out,” and, most recently, “One More Yesterday” starring Avi Hoffman and Angie Radosh. I mention these two because you’ll find them starring in “A Shonda” as well, with Yiddishkayt Initiative founder Avi Hoffman, a Yiddish and Hebrew speaker with a deep knowledge of Jewish culture and traditions, also serving as consultant.
Then Larsen, the show’s producer, director, and co-book writer (with Graf) tapped his excellent music team of Bobby Peaco as music director/composer & lyricist and Dennis Manning as composer and lyricist once again to not only write the music and lyrics, but also provide live music throughout the show (Peaco’s on keyboard and Manning on guitar). NYC-based, award-winning choreographer Oren Korenblum – who’d also worked on Larsen’s earlier musicals (garnering two Carbonell nominations and one win) – returned to give us a never-before-seen mash up of line dance and traditional Hasidic wedding dance moves. When I wondered how he knew this, I was told that he, like Hoffman, had also been raised in Israel.
And how did I know that these traditional dances were recreated so perfectly? I’ll let you in on a little secret about why I was so determined to see this show – based on its name alone. Years back, at age 19, I too was shipped off to study in Israel because I’d become a “shonda” for my Holocaust survivor father who’d reunited with his Hasidic roots when we moved from the Bronx to Boro Park when I was 16. My indiscretion was that I was “running around with boys” (otherwise known as “dating”) and not settling on a husband after only three dates. My father cited an edict proclaiming a girl must go to the “huppah” (wedding canopy) by age 18, so I’d embarrassed the family by living at home as an old maid of 19. Proving there are many ways that outdated religious dogma can create barriers to acceptance and happiness, and many ways to relate to this insightful and sublimely original musical.
So now I can confidently say – having started life in the Bronx with Yiddish as my first language (like Avi Hoffman), and having experienced many an Orthodox Sabbath and Hasidic wedding – that the show got all the prayers, dances, and klezmer tunes right. I also adored their country music selections (love of “country” being a long-held guilty pleasure)! Along with horas and Kazatzka-style moves, I especially enjoyed the fast-paced line dances which have become my favorite form of exercise, thanks to Ysaac’s thrice-weekly line dance classes at the David Posnack JCC.
There truly is something for everyone in this show. And despite the serious subject, an awful lot of humor as well. Like the unforgettable “Gehinnom” (Yiddish for Hell) dream sequence that’s more hilarious than frightening (to the audience). But quite a shock to the system of poor, conflicted young Hasid, Duvid, sensitively portrayed by Brandon Campbell who’d appeared in several recent POW! and other local productions. He can act, sing and dance … and gets to showcase all three talents, a lot!
Duvid’s illicit love interest, Clay, is played by out-of-towner Jackson Goad, a 2024 Ithaca College musical theater graduate making his professional Florida acting debut. Reading this in the program was a shock as he’s surely destined for greatness. The guy’s not only ripped gorgeous but also a fabulously emotive actor … and when you hear him sing! My god! Broadway caliber all the way! Happily, he had great material to work with, starting with “Hometown” (featuring Clay, Duvid & Company), where the pull of community is likened to a merry-go-round where one can get off or stay on.
Moving from “just starting out” to “highly experienced,” one can’t get better than local treasure Angie Radosh who’d recently excelled as the star of LPAC’s “Hello Dolly” and now does a total 180 as Clay’s pious Baptist, blue-collar mom, Tennessee twang and all. When she catches her pre-teen hanging out on a bridge with Duvid she yells at “Davie” to go home to his people and instructs her son to keep far away from “the Jew.”
Her religion and upbringing won’t let her see her gay son as anything but misguided and needing to be fixed. When she pushes him to go out with a girl, Clay decides to answer honestly for once: “The only way I can have sex with a girl is if I’m high. Do you want me on opioids?” When his mom shouts: “What is wrong with you? You need to see Pastor Jenkins to get over this phase!” Clay’s wry retort is: “I’m 30 years old. Hell of a ‘phase’.” Radosh then sings “Shame,” slaps him and sends him away. Angie Radosh’s rich vocals are always a joy and come through loud and clear in the intimate, four-row theater.
While we’re immediately confronted with problems in Clay’s home life, we don’t witness Duvid’s interior conflicts, at first. Rather, we slowly discover his situation through frequent flashbacks, starting with when he was a wide-eyed, compliant youngster and protege of his congregation’s “Rebbe” (Rabbi and spiritual leader), a boy he’d chosen as his future son-in-law. Once, the Rebbe even joins Duvid in fishing, while instructing: “Fishing is fine as long as you eat what you catch. You do not torture animals.” Sadly, the teacher appears oblivious to the tortured soul of his favorite student.
And this student, despite his feelings for Clay, cannot fathom giving up his family and his entire world. So he goes with program. We witness the wedding scene of his marriage to the Rebbe’s daughter, Ruchel aka Rachel. The Rebbe had predicted this would be the happiest day of his life and prays he will be blessed with many children as the Torah says, “Be fruitful and multiply.” But Ana Marie Calise who portrays Rachel (and earlier, waitress Amanda who practically throws herself at Clay, to no avail) soon senses something’s off in her marriage, and complains to her father that her husband’s been neglecting his husbandly duties. In a stunning voice, Calise belts out, “A Woman Knows.”
