One part ravioli, one part kreplach and two parts Prozac, is how the award-winning My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm In Therapy is described by its author/performer, Steve Solomon. "Therapy," which became one of the longest running one-man shows in Broadway history, now takes its laughter and angst on the road to celebrate "twice the hollering, twice the holidays and twice the guilt" of the teacher-turned-comic who grew up half-Italian, half-Jewish.
Steve Solomon premieres his My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy, for the first time in Northeast Ohio at PlayhouseSquare's intimate Ohio Theatre for one 6 pm show, Sunday, March 14th. (Tickets: $34.50; $24.50 & $10 Smart Seats.)
And while it is a "one-man" show, Steve Solomon has taken the art of impersonation and honed it to a science, masterfully weaving different dialects and crazy characters into his stories who audiences will relate to characters in their own families. We meet the people who we're all too familiar with; 30 in all--family members who make you remember why you left home in the first place. After meeting Steve's family, he jokes that you'll leave wondering why more states don't have capital punishment!
A native of Brooklyn, Steve Solomon grew up in the multi-ethnic neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay. This was the perfect training ground for a dialectician. As the class clown and as a very authentic sounding Chinese restaurant delivery boy, Steve learned at an early age how to use his gift for imitating accents to his advantage.
He also realized that he was a prolific writer of jokes; real jokes. And, blinded by the "glitz" of show business, he submitted dozens of his stories to periodicals, stand-up comics and friends he knew in the business, all the while still working his "day job" as a science teacher. His "break" came when a New York talent agent saw him perform in a local comedy club and approached him with an offer to do stand-up professionally, saying, "It would be the best-paying part-time job you'll ever have."
His idea to juggle meatballs and matzo balls into the successful one-man "Therapy" ultimately became education's loss and entertainment's gain, as Steve penned a hilarious follow-up: My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm STILL in Therapy! And...just when you thought it was safe to return for the holidays, Steve joined his Chanukah and Christmas experiences into a trifecta masterpiece of family dysfunction with My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm Home for the Holidays!
Tickets for Steve Solomon starring in My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy are on sale at playhousesquare.org, 216-241-6000 or at The PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office. Prices are: $34.50, $24.50 & $10 Smart Seats for this one-man comedy show held in the intimate Ohio Theatre Sunday, March 14th at 6 pm.
