Interview: Becca Suskauer in HOW MY GRANDPARENTS FELL IN LOVE at NJ Rep
Becca Suskauer gave us a fascinating interview about her background, career and the show at New Jersey Repertory Company
By: Marina Kennedy Jul. 30, 2025
New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) is currently presenting 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 through August 10, 2025 with matinee and evening performances available.
Starring Harris Milgrimand Becca Suskauer, 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.
Broadwayworld had the pleasure of interviewing Becca Suskauer about her career and the show at NJ Rep.
Becca Suskauer is heartened to help bring this refreshing and timeless Jewish story to life. Becca is an actor and singer/songwriter based in NYC, with her music available on streaming platforms. Credits: Nat’l Tour – Pretty Woman (Vivian Ward U/S), Off-Broadway – Relapse (Kendra), Regional – Waitress (Dawn) at Actor’s Playhouse, & various performances at The Muny, Carnegie Hall, Northern Stage, and New London Barn Playhouse. She made her TV debut in Pretty Little Liars: Summer School on Max last summer, and wrapped shooting on her first movie this May! Penn State University MT ‘21 Alum. Love to Mom, Dad, Talia, HCKR, Sherry Kayne, Neil, Cary, and SuzAnne. 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.
Who was the first person to realize your talent for music and acting?
My parents. They kept a dress-up box for my older sister and in our playroom — we would dress up and sing karaoke on our old tv for them quite a bit. At the end of pre-K at our temple, there was usually a mini musical the teachers would put on with the graduating kids. I was obsessed with Annie, and demanded they do the show and I play Annie. I was four. I think my Mom figured it out somewhere around there. Somewhere along the line, my parents realized I could sing and it just never stopped.
Can you tell us a little about your training and if you had any important mentors?
I went to performing arts sleepaway camp for the better part of a decade, French Woods Festival - always doing shows every summer there and falling in love with theatre more and more. I went to performing arts middle school and high school, in the theatre departments. I revered my tap teacher, Stacey Downs, who taught me from 2nd grade through the end of middle school. Esteemed and beloved teacher and music director Michael Larsen, taught in our high school’s theatre department for a year, and gave me my first professional job touring condominium stages with a four-person cabaret. It was one of the best summers I’ll ever spend. Michael really believed in me and it changed my life. We lost him very suddenly later that year, and I miss him all the time. Jennifer Yormak runs our children’s theatre in Stuart, FL, and my sister and I spent several years doing shows there. She taught us the ropes of how you conduct yourself and fight for making your work of high quality, and we are still very close with her and her children who are also successful in the biz, Kevin and Amanda. Lastly, I got my BFA in Musical Theatre at Penn State. I loved my time there and that program and its teachers shaped me through years of challenging growth — especially my voice teacher Gwen Walker who cross-trained her students in several styles, coached our voices to be versatile, healthy, and malleable. She’s a forever mentor and friend, and also a badass. I have so many teachers over those years of whom I owe so much to.
We know that you have recently completed your first movie. What are some of the challenges of transitioning from a stage career and performing your music to being in a film?
Yes! I’m still over the moon about it, and probably will be for awhile. It was the most fun I’ve ever had. In terms of challenges of transitioning between mediums, I think a great deal of curiosity is needed (my favorite word). There’s always a learning curve when you’re doing something new. I’m grateful to Bob Krakower and his BK Gang for the incredible acting for the camera classes I’ve taken in the city the past 2+ years, because the not only reframed and built up my acting skills, but I’ve been learning a lot about the business and being on set from this class. Of course actually being on set is school within itself. I’m grateful I’ve gotten to shoot a TV scene a couple years ago before I went onto my first movie set this past May. It’s a small and great role in a major motion picture, and all I was equipped with for those four days of shooting was my training and my curiosity. There are expected and obvious technical differences when you’re acting between mediums. Onstage, your relationship to space is very important, and in film your relationship to the camera is very important - amongst many other differences. But the truth of the moment and listening to your scene partner remains the constant. When all else fails, I just return to supporting my scene partner (something Bob told me when I sought his advice the weekend before shooting the film). Then the nerves melt away and I get to just do my job and maybe have some fun in the process. (And shooting the movie, with some of my film heroes, was indeed, very fun.)
Tell us a little about working with the team for "How My Grandparents Fell in Love."
Where to begin. It feels like a family. Which is rare because this is work for us, and it’s always a toss up what the social dynamic and room of people will be like. We got quite lucky. It’s been a gift to once again come into the room with only what I know and my curiosity. You have to be patient with new works. I’ve done plenty in the city and every process is run differently, especially depending upon how developed the piece is. My wonderful co-star Harris Milgrim and I were fortunate to join this piece in a beautiful stage of its development: the piece at hand is progressed enough for a first production, is a story we just adore with music we just adore, and our writers (and brilliant music supervisor Matt), and designers/team, and lovely choreographer Jordan Ryder at NJ Rep were prepared, hard at work, and also curious! Not to mention, Harris and I did not know each other prior to being cast, and have become fast friends and forever scene partners. I am very grateful for him. Together we’ve put our creative hats on as actors and as collaborators, and faced the opportunities and challenges of the everyday, building a brand new, two-person love story that takes place in Poland 1933. It has almost felt like the most filmic work I’ve done on stage, given how intimate the space is and the story’s nature. In a two-person show, all you have is each other. It’s live theatre, and things happen. When they do, how can you solve problems together, keep listening, and still authentically tell the story? Harris makes this and our chemistry EASY for me. We goof off (not too much!) and get to fall in love with each other each night. Curiosity is the key.
We'd love to know a little about your role and how you have prepared for it.
Chava is a whip-smart, determined, who aspires to be a scholar — she doesn’t have a current interest in marriage or what she feels to be conventional or expected of her — and she certainly doesn’t change how she feels when she meets Charlie for the first time, much to his chagrin, she makes it clear with her resistance to him and guard up, throughout his loving attempts to get through to her. Here’s the challenge: it is really easy to fall into the trap of making Chava two-dimensional, mean, jaded, or potentially unkind altogether, for the first few scenes of the show. It is easy to put your opinion as an actor/audience member onto a character before giving them a chance to breathe. I fell in love with Chava throughout this process, and realize more every day how alike we are. She IS determined and IS resistant to Charlie — she’s got a family to feed and dreams to live out. And she is NOT used to this potential threat to those things constantly giving her all this attention. It doesn’t feel normal, and she’s self-preserving (while labeling Charlie the same at one point) herself from Charlie, and she’s figuring out how curious she really is about “love” at the same time. She has fire in her eyes and is a dreamer, but when she wrestles with her feelings for Charlie in their truncated time together, there is a beautiful soft part of her that is innocent and curious about the newness of connection and romance. And I’ve been discovering along the way how much of a gift it is to keep your guard up and slowly let someone you trust break down your wall and let you fall for them. I’ve been there. It’s scary and wonderful and feels like jumping off a cliff, and it’s been the most rewarding opportunity re-discovering that experience through Chava’s eyes. She finds herself to be sweet and adventurous and multi-faceted, a departure from what she thought had to be a binary way of existing. She’s got this one line: “I’m going to make something of myself… and I’m going to do it as a woman, AND a Jew.” And that is a very self-actualizing thing for me to say as a proud Jewish woman. I love Chava. It has not been difficult to step into her shoes, I feel I know her well.
What would you like metro area audiences to know about the show?
Come to the theatre with an open heart and mind if you can. We touch on deep-rooted 1930’s antisemitism in Poland, it is the backdrop of our show, but it does not define our story. The perseverance of love and the courage and resilience of the Jewish people in uncertain times — that’s what defines our story. You’re in for a treat. Neil Berg has composed a score so tuneful that you’ll be singing the melodies for days, and our book by Cary Gitter is so quotable and witty. We’ve loved working with them and can’t wait to continue in the future. We believe that Suzanne Barabas has such a keen eye for casting and we are so happy her and our writers’ intuition led to this pairing.
We are touched that you are dedicating the performance to your grandmother Rose who did so much to educate people. Tell us a little about her!
My grandmother Rose Rosenkranz is an incredible woman with an unbelievable story. She was a miracle baby, born in secret to my Bubbe and Zeide in a camp in Siberia in 1945. They survived, made it into a displaced persons camp, lost most of their family members in the war, and eventually made it to New York with nothing. My Grandma experienced antisemitism in the classroom when none of the kids wanted to hold the hand of the Jewish immigrant girl. She’d get made fun of for saying words in her strong accent. She stayed silent until she started speaking up in high school, and eventually led 19 years of groups on the March of the Living. My great-grandmother had also gone on this trip before she passed. My mother and my sister both have gone on the trip as well. My Grandma led 19 chapters through the camps in Poland, and on her 19th trip I heard my family’s stories for the first time, often at the sites we know they were murdered at. It was a trip that bonded us together forever, if we weren’t already. It has deeply influenced my advocacy against antisemitism all these years since. She continues to educate students in South Florida about the Holocaust and her and our family’s experiences. I am so proud of her and hope she can see our show someday. It reminds me of her parents. My Bubbe and Zeide were amazing people.
Can you share with us any of your future plans?
I’m finishing up my third single, and we got to record it at a great studio in the city a few months ago, with my producer/arranger Oren Levin getting to play Paul McCartney’s old piano. We are very excited about this one, and I know there are more collaborations to come. And yes, I have some things in the works for the future, but the audition grind never stops, and I continue to get after it! Making good art with good people is my constant pursuit, and I’m grateful that I have gotten to do just that this summer. It was bashert, for sure.
To learn more about Becca Suskauer, visit her website at beccasuskauer.com and follow her on social media @beccaflower.
How My Grandparents Fell in Love has a run time of 2 hours with one intermission. The show will play Thursdays at 7 PM, Fridays & Saturdays at 2 PM and 7 PM, and Sundays at 2 PM. NJ Rep is located at 179 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ 07740. There is generous free parking in the rear of the theatre where patrons enter. For tickets and more information, visit www.njrep.org or call 732-229-3166.
Photo Credit: Andrea Phox
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