‘Hereville’ Is Getting Thereville

By Sandi Masori

CARLSBAD, California — A new musical is making the rounds while still in development.  Hereville, a deeply Jewish show, was on tour here with a reading performance as part of JFest.  What’s a reading performance, you may ask?  It’s a little like readers’ theatre where the actors are sitting, or standing at podiums, on book, while they perform without sets and minimal blocking.

It’s an interesting way to see a show, as without the familiar aid of sets and props, more is left to the imagination.  The cast did a great job delivering a tear-jerking performance, and the audience was captivated for the entire journey.  Becca Myers really stood out with an excellent portrayal of a witch.

Usually, I have to search hard for the Jewish angle in shows, but this show is all Jewish.  The thing that I really liked about it is that it’s an Orthodox Jewish family having a human experience rather than a person having a Jewish experience.

What I mean by that is that the family is Orthodox and Baalat T’shuva Jews. The story begins as they prepare for Shabbat. But the story is not about Shabbat, or heavier themes that we may expect from “Jewish” shows, it’s about a blended family learning to overcome their respective grief and come together as a family.  It’s about motherly love between a daughter and a stepdaughter and feelings of familial betrayals.  All very relatable to anyone.  It just so happens that the family it’s happening to is that of 11-year old Mirka, (Ava Madison Gray), whose Orthodox father re-married  Frumy (formerly Franny) after Mirka’s mother’s death from an illness.  So, while the Jewish themes are very present, so are the universal ones.

I was joined by my good friend Amy Angel, who is not Jewish, and she felt much the same way I did, though I did give her a little tutorial after the show on some of the terms and inside jokes.  I think that when the play is produced fully, it would be a good idea to have a glossary of terms and customs in the program to help the uninitiated follow completely.  That said, she was as misty-eyed as I was at the end of this heartwarming show.

Speaking of when the play will be fully produced, I was able to get a very brief interview with producer Becky Cherlin Baird on the way out of the New Village Arts theatre in Carlsbad, and she said that they would be going around and doing more readings and tweaking and developing it along the way.  As for when it would be ready for Broadway or off-Broadway?  Well, that she said was entirely a question of money.  I really hope she’s able to find those investors because I would love to see this on Broadway and then through Broadway in San Diego when it comes back here.

San Diego Jewish World reviewed an earlier reading of the play, so you can learn more about the plot by clicking this link.

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Sandi Masori is a theatre and food reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.  When she’s not covering theatre or food, she helps authors self-publish, hangs out with her kids, and searches for the best sushi in town.