Son of Holocaust survivors directs Mrs Doubtfire musical

The Farmers Market in Amagansett, East Hampton, is the place to shop on weekends. It’s where Gwyneth Paltrow buys her lavender-infused honey and, when he’s in town, Sir Paul McCartney picks up jars of the crunchy unrefined sea salt. It’s a local speciality in an area where the truly famous have second or third homes, and the dress code for market day is smart casual. So who was the man in the tee shirt with ‘Death is just around the corner’ written on the back? This message of doom on such a sunny chi-chi day piqued my interest.

Jerry in his ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ director’s cap with Brigit

“What does it say on the front?” I asked the stranger presumptuously. “Addams Family Musical,” he said, turning. “I directed it.” Mention ‘musical’ to someone raised on them, and there’s no escaping, not that Jerry Zaks seemed to mind. He just kept smiling – that standout smile for which he’s known on Broadway, where they call him the King. Name a musical, and the chances are that Jerry has either directed, conceived or starred in it at some point in his career, which began in 1972 when he was cast as Kenickie in Grease on Broadway.

In 1975, he played Motel the Tailor alongside Zero Mostel as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. “My father was a fan of Mostel and talked to him backstage in Yiddish for about 20 minutes.” To have discovered one of musical theatre’s greatest assets among the bijou stalls of organic jams in the Hamptons was thrilling, but when I told him we had tickets for Bette Midler’s Hello, Dolly! and he said “Enjoy, I directed it.” Well, you can imagine. He went on to tell me he was working on a musical adaptation of the Robin Williams’ film Mrs Doubtfire and now, more than three years later, the show opens in London next week.

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Jerry in rehearsals with Bette

That a lot has happened in between is an understatement and, during Covid, Jerry and I exchanged emails about the closure of the world’s theatres. Some never opened again, but Jerry emerged from the darkness with a production of The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman.

Staying in touch by email, our first Zoom was a celebration, as he had just become a grandfather. Then he talked about his life, which began in Stuttgart, the city in which his parents met after the war. His mother Lily had been in Auschwitz and his father Sy escaped capture, but when the family moved to America when Jerry was two, they took their demons with them.“My parents were terrified of everything and anyone who was different to us, a fear they instilled in me. It was theatre that saved me – where I connected and found a community.”

Jerry’s head was turned by the stage when he saw his first musical, Wonderful Town, in 1965, but his parents were devastated as they wanted him to be a doctor. “At 16 I had no idea what I wanted to do, and ‘doctor’ sounded like a good thing to say. But then I dropped pre-med for English and theatre classes, and eventually my parents came around.” Zero Mostel played a part in that acceptance as, when he was asked by Jerry’s father: “Is my son going to be all right in this fakakta business?” he told the kosher butcher: “He’ll be more than alright.”

Smiling Jerry and sort of smiling De Niro

At the Ensemble Studio Theatre off-Broadway Jerry got his first chance to direct. “I loved acting, but it’s terrifying. When you direct, it’s like shaping a sculpture.” There have been many hit shows since, but his 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls still makes him kvell, with its eight Tony nominations and a win of four, including best director for him. Our Zoom was long, but we barely discussed his experience of co-directing the musical A Bronx Tale with Robert De Niro. In their picture, Jerry is smiling and, as Robert sort of is, we assume it went well.

Gabriel Vick as Mrs Doubtfire

Hopefully Mrs Doubtfire will succeed at the Shaftesbury Theatre as the songs are great and Gabriel Vick is a fearless Euphegenia Doubtfire. He needs to be, because the trans community and their vocal allies have views on the show’s premise. What was funny and endearing in 1993 is now questionable. Causing offence with a musical about a divorced dad disguising himself as a nanny to be with his kids is the last thing Jerry wants to do, and he has shifted the focus to its universal story; that of a parent who will do anything to stay close to his children.

“Given all that’s happened in the world, we would be crazy to not be as sensitive as we can to avoid hurting people,”he said in a statement.”We’re certainly not making fun of a man who gets into a dress.”He’s right, as the show is about having fun and making an audience smile. And no one does smiles better than the King of Broadway.