Event

The Bialy Eaters

Noted food writer Mimi Sheraton's book details her quest for the elusive bialy, the humble but beloved bread from a lost world. What began as an interest became an obsession. Emmy nominee Ellen Sandler brings Sheraton's memoir to life in a play that celebrates the astonishing endurance of the simplest traditions.

Featuring Joshua Silverstein (True Colors, Drop the Mic) and Ben Simon, violist and former conductor of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, this concert-style production travels the world with Sheraton as she pursues the ghost of a memory among the few Jewish survivors of Bialystok's final pogrom.

On a decidedly lighter note, a short sing-along musical, "Bake Your Own Amazing Bagels: The Musical," will open the gluten-rich program. Its creator, Laurie Leiber, borrows melodies from some of Tin Pan Alley's best (Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher, Duke Ellington, Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz) to tell a loosely autobiographical tale involving bagels.

"I met Ellen for the first time about a year ago," recalls Leiber. "My husband and I took her out to lunch to thank her for advising our son on his Hollywood writing ambitions. Halfway through our sandwiches we discovered she had written a play about bialys and I had written a musical about bagels. By the end of the meal we decided to produce this show as soon as the pandemic would allow."