Bon Jovi founder invites ‘mishpachah’ to his play

Nice article about David Bryan and Memphis in the Canadian Jewish News. Dave talks about how he drew on his experiences of antisemitism when writing the music for the musical. A few quotes:

“The show is entertainment with a meaning,” Bryan said in a phone interview from his New Jersey home studio last week. “While I’m a white Jewish kid from New Jersey, where there wasn’t a lot of us, there was hate. And I know what that feels like, how ugly that is and how wrong it is.”
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“People would say they hated me because I’m a Jew, to which I responded: ‘You have to get to know me to hate me first.’ I just saw how much this affected me and how much I didn’t like it.

“I had a rabbi who told me no one walks ahead or behind anyone else. And I take that message to heart.”

Memphis debuts at the Toronto Centre for the Arts on December 6. Read the full article here.