(LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) presents the world premiere of How My Grandparents Fell in Love, a heartwarming and timely new musical by playwright Cary Gitter and composer Neil Berg, directed by NJ Rep Artistic Director SuzAnne Barabas. The production runs from July 17 through August 10, 2025.
From the team that brought audiences The Sabbath Girl (which Theatermania called “entertaining and legitimately charming”), this new musical blends humor, heart, and history, shedding light on love, legacy, and resilience in the face of looming darkness.
Starring Harris Milgrim (Broadway: Tootsie, Cats) and Becca Suskauer (National Tour: Pretty Woman), How My Grandparents Fell in Love tells a deeply personal and poignant story set in 1933 Poland. Charlie, a Jewish immigrant who left Europe for America a decade earlier, returns to his hometown of Rovno in search of a bride. There, he meets Chava, a bright and independent young woman with scholarly aspirations. But as dreams bloom between them, the rising tide of anti-Semitism across Europe threatens their futures—and the future of generations to come.
Performances take place Thursdays at 7:00pm; Fridays & Saturdays at 2:00pm & 7:00pm; and Sundays at 2:00pm (with a few 7:00pm performances recently added). Tickets are available for purchase online or by calling 732-229-3166. NJ Rep is located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch, New Jersey.
HARRIS MILGRIM Select credits: Broadway: Tootsie, Cats; Off-Broadway: Grand Hotel; Call Me Madam; Paint Your Wagon; Piece of My Heart; National Tour: West Side Story. World Premiere: The Honeymooners; Secondhand Lions; Regional: Good Night, Oscar; Frozen; West Side Story; The World Goes ‘Round; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; Joseph…Dreamcoat; Smokey Joe’s; Altar Boyz.
BECCA SUSKAUER is an actor and singer/songwriter based in NYC, with her music available on streaming platforms. Credits: NATIONAL TOUR: Pretty Woman; OFF-BROADWAY: Relapse; REGIONAL: Waitress (Actor’s Playhouse), and various performances at The Muny, Carnegie Hall, Northern Stage, and New London Barn Playhouse. Becca made her TV debut in “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School” on Max, and wrapped shooting on her first movie this May! Becca dedicates this performance to her grandmother Rose (originally Raisa), one of the youngest Holocaust survivors, who has dedicated her life to educating students about the Shoah and the Jewish people, around the world.
“The New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch is a godsend to audiences and, especially, playwrights – a skillful, professional ensemble dedicated solely to performing new works. It is nearly impossible to overpraise the importance of its mission at a time when play-it-safe productions are the norm.” — The New York Times
NEW JERSEY REPERTORY COMPANY (NJ Rep) was founded in 1997 by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas. Its current central headquarters is the Lumia Theater, located on lower Broadway in Long Branch. The theater's mission is to develop and produce new plays and to make a lasting contribution to the American Stage. Over two decades, NJ Rep has produced 152 plays, of which 128 have been world premieres. The theater has the additional distinction of having had many of its plays produced by other theaters around the country, totaling over 200 subsequent productions in the US and overseas.
In 2012 and 2018, NJ Rep received a National Theater Company Grant from the American Theater Wing that sponsors the annual Tony Awards for Broadway in recognition of its contribution to the repertoire of the American Stage. Only seven theaters have had this distinction. In addition, the theater has presented over 400 developmental readings as well as introduced 136 new works through its Theatre Brut Short-Play Festivals that focus on visionary and avant-garde works.
NJRep acquired a new property, a 28,000 square foot school situated on 2 ½ acres and located just five minutes from its Main Stage Lumia Theater and two blocks from the Jersey Shore. The theater plans on gradually transforming the school in stages into a cultural center that will house additional performance spaces, an art cinema, an art museum, a rooftop café, an arts education wing, and residences for out-of-town actors and playwrights. When completed, the center will present a wide array of programs in acting, playwriting, art, sculpture, poetry, music, and photography and will serve as a catalyst for economic development and as the foundation for the cultural renaissance of the community.
NJ Rep thanks the following for their support: Shubert Foundation, Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Community Foundation if New Jersey and New Jersey State Council in the Arts.
