Sarasota Dr. Michael Jackowitz discovered a flair for the dramatic early on. At the age of 10 he recruited kids in his Maitland neighborhood, just north of Orlando, to form “The Kewanee Street Players.” Their first production was an ambitious Robin Hood that got raves from proud parents, including his own. The film version, directed by Jackowitz, remains archived in one of their closets.
He then starred as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, first in sixth grade and later at the Jewish Community Center in Maitland. It remains his favorite role.
Throughout his childhood, Jackowitz was inadvertently laying groundwork for an career as a theater producer, working with the likes of Hal Prince (West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret), Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Wicked) and Daniel Radcliffe (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying). On the way he became a medical doctor with a thriving New York practice. And he came out to his Conservative Jewish parents, a tumultuous process that changed his family and led Enid Jackowitz to write The Rest of the Way: A Coming Out Story for Parents and Gay Children—a remarkable resource for parents with gay children.
Jackowitz’ latest Broadway-bound musical, Daddy Long Legs, is currently in residence at Sarasota’s Florida Studio Theatre through April 5.
The story of an orphan who receives a scholarship from an anonymous benefactor, Daddy Long Legs is told in a series of musical letters between the two. In them, Jerusha, the orphan, matures into a confident woman; and Jervis, the lonely benefactor, grows enamored with his plucky ward. Jerusha presumes her sponsor is much older, and when she learns otherwise their relationship blossoms.
The production stars the lovely Penny McNamee, whose television credits include Salem’s Lot, Elementary and Blue Bloods, and big-voiced Kevin Early, whose Broadway credits include Les Miserables and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
“It is a pleasure to sit back and let a new musical charm you,” wrote Jay Handelman in the Sarasota Herald Tribune. “This tender story… possesses a gentle sweetness that can touch the heart.”
Doctor Producer
With unlikely talents for math, science and musical theater, Jackowitz enrolled as a pre-med student at Emory University in Atlanta. He continued acting until he was passed over for the lead role of Tevye in Fiddler. It proved a turning point.
“The guy they picked was truly talented in a way I am not,” Jackowitz says. “I was devastated, but it was a valuable lesson and I began to look for other ways to fulfill my passion for theater.”
He took a class in theater administration and something clicked. But Jackowitz was reluctant to put his eggs in that basket—in part to distance himself from gay stereotypes—and instead applied to medical schools. A residency at Beth Israel Medical Center took him to New York, where he tenuously decided to reactivate his interest in theater.
Jackowitz signed up for a workshop at The Directors Company, where a handful of difficult actors taught him that he wasn’t temperamentally suited to directing. But his peers pegged him as a potential producer, and another workshop at the Commercial Theater Institute proved them insightful.
Soon, in one of those life-changing “just happened to be in the room when the call came in” events, Jackowitz was working as the liaison between Broadway legend Hal Prince and The Directors Company.
“I was like a kid in a candy store,” Jackowitz said. “I met luminaries like Stephen Schwartz, but I also forged relationships with people who are musical directors now but were rehearsal pianists back then.”
And Jackowitz found himself with a front row seat as musical theater was created by some of the most successful producers in the business.
Ready or not, in 1995 Jackowitz received an offer to become one of the producers of an Off-Broadway play by Nicky Silver called The Food Chain. When he blinked at the $50,000 required, the lead producer asked if he could raise that amount. After a few phone calls to doctor friends, Jackowitz signed on for $75,000 and a career was born. The Food Chain became the biggest hit of the Off-Broadway season.
Recently Jackowitz produced Stephen Schwartz’ first opera—Séance on a Wet Afternoon—at Lincoln Center. In 2011 he was one of the producers of the successful 50th anniversary revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliffe. And in 2012 he won the coveted Drama Desk Award for “Best Review” for The Best is Yet to Come.
This was all done while Jackowitz worked almost full time as an internist at The Farber Center for Radiation Oncology in the shadow of One World Trade Center.
“I love practicing medicine and I love theater,” Jackowitz says. “But to do both you have to want it really badly, and I do.”
Drama at home
Jackowitz came out in 1985, dancing to Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Around” in a gay bar in the Marais section of Paris. When he returned home he broke off a pre-engagement with his college girlfriend and braced himself to tell his parents.
“This was pre-Ellen and pre-Will and Grace… I thought I was the only gay person in Orlando,” Jackowitz writes in his chapter in The Rest of the Way. “But I made the decision to live the life I was meant to live and I wanted to people important to me to know.”
His mother took it badly, lashing out at him as though his sexual orientation was something done to her. She questioned his fitness as a Jew, and whether people would trust him around children.
‘I was the golden child, so it went very quickly from ‘Yay, Michael’s coming home’ to ‘Oh my God, Michael’s coming home,’” Jackowitz says.
But love trumped all in the close-knit family, and Enid and Syd Jackowitz certainly loved their son, Michael. Enid sought out therapy, workshops and self-help materials, eventually embracing her son and empowering herself in an extraordinary ways. She went on to become a counselor, specializing in the treatment of gays, lesbians and their families. Her book, published in 2009, is a must-read. (For more information visit RestOfTheWay.com)
And when Jackowitz met the love of his life, Shawn Hallum, the couple celebrated their son’s relationship at a commitment ceremony in the Hamptons. Jackowitz and Hallum have now been together almost 20 years.
Broadway bound
Jackowitz is particularly proud of Daddy Long Legs. The musical is based on the novel by Jean Webster, with book by John Caird and music and lyrics by Paul Gordon. Gordon first presented the show to Jackowitz in 2006.
“By the third track of the demo tape, I knew I wanted to produce it,” Jackowitz says.
Daddy Long Legs was originally written as a one-woman show, but Jackowitz believed both characters should be on stage. Caird and Gordon agreed to the change, and the show was workshopped at the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, Calif. Jackowitz then faced the challenge of how—and where—to premiere it. He found six theaters willing to split substantial initial production costs, and ended up successfully touring 15 cities, including Sarasota.
Daddy Long Legs is now in the queue for a hard-to-come-by Broadway theater. Jackowitz also hopes to bring Tuck Everlasting, a musical based on the children’s fantasy novel by Natalie Babbit, to New York.
“When you commission a work like Fiddler, they send you a box with everything you need—music, scripts, costume and set designs—inside,” Jackowitz says, explaining his love for producing. “But with a brand new show there’s no box. One of my favorite things in the world is to make that box.”
More Info:
What: Daddy Long Legs
When: Through April 5
Where: Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota
Info and Tix: FloridaStudioTheatre.org
