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Aaron Benham

How My Grandparents Fell in Love

April 13, 2026

Playwright Cary Gitter and composer Neil Berg’s "How My Grandparents Fell in Love," their follow-up musical to "The Sabbath Girl" also seen at 59E59 Theaters, is a charming old school two-character musical about how Gitter’s grandparents got together in 1933. While not particularly new in content or style, it has its own appeal and a prepossessing plot and quirky characters that hold your interest. Set in Rovno, Poland in the 1930s, it also brings back to life a civilization that is gone with the wind dramatizing pre-World War II Europe. Harris Milgrim and Becca Suskauer are an engaging couple as the author’s grandparents who initially don’t like each other when they first meet just like Jane Austen’s iconic couple in Pride and Prejudice, possibly the archetype for all major rom-coms. [more]

The Book of Merman

November 7, 2018

The witty score with music and lyrics by Schwartz is a collection of both pastiche songs based on numbers Merman made famous and new ones that fit her style that suggest other famous songs. Directed and choreographed by Joe Langworth in a brisk and breezy fashion, "The Book of Merman" is a diverting, entertaining show that will be best enjoyed by musical comedy aficionados who know their Merman from their Mary Martin as there are a great many in-jokes. [more]