Barely three weeks postpartum, on December 13, Broadway star Julie Benko found herself in front of the camera, powerfully belting out the “Annie” smash hit “Tomorrow” with tear-filled eyes. The “Funny Girl” and “Harmony” star was with 50 other Broadway performers who joined her in singing the Broadway hit, as well as Cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue, who sang the Hanukkah blessings in that same tune, in the heart of New York City’s Times Square, where the technicolor billboards stopped their regular programming to share the beauty of the Jewish Festival of Lights.
In a hotel room right next to the teeming New York tourist destination, Benko’s husband, musician Jason Yaeger, waited for her with their newborn daughter, Sophie Eloise, who they call Lulu. It was producers Amanda Lipitz and Henry Tisch, the team behind Shabbat on Broadway earlier this year as well as the previous collaboration between Schwartz and Benko, a Rosh Hashanah take on “Seasons of Love,” who wanted to make sure that Benko, who agreed to do this project just a few weeks before her due date, would feel comfortable and supported.
“I got a couple comments being like, you shouldn’t be doing this, you shouldn’t be working so soon, you should just be at home resting,” Benko tells Kveller over the phone, her daughter cooing and fussing in the background, but filming the video with Lulu so close by was actually empowering for the creator who lives and breathes music. “I have to say, going out and doing this thing actually has been probably one of the best things for me and my mental health. To feel like I could still do this thing that I love and feel like myself and then come home to my baby — it’s actually been really cool to have little pockets of time where I could sort of slip away and continue to do my art.”
Being pregnant this past year had been intense for Benko. “Between the levels of antisemitism in the world that are growing, and knowing I’m having a Jewish baby, not knowing what’s the world going to be like for her, has been intimidating,” she shares. “Also compounded by the worries of what’s it like to be a woman in this country going forward… I was actually in labor and delivery triage on election night,” she recalls. She feared her water had broken and went into the hospital to make sure that everything was OK — it was — and Benko gave birth later that month, on Thanksgiving Day. “It was a really sort of scary moment, to feel like I’m bringing a baby girl into this world and I don’t know what her choices look like in this country in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years,” she says. “So it’s been stressful in that way, knowing you’re bringing a life into this world, as a parent you experience that in a new way.”
Through it all, though, there were moments of wonder too for the star, like when she went to see “Suffs,” a musical by another Jewish creator, Shaina Taub, while pregnant.
“I was just crying, thinking about the future for my daughter, and I was so inspired by these women — these historical women, and Shaina, who wrote the thing, and what the future can hold for her, and how she can be a part of it. I was so moved at the fact that she just didn’t stop kicking the whole show.”
Benko is still planning to enjoy maternity leave with Lulu. Her thoughts are mostly focused on being with her baby and celebrating her first Hanukkah with the adorable-themed onesies she’s been gifted. Her next projects aren’t until February and April — her yearly Mardi Gras show at Birdland Jazz and a show at the Carlyle with Yaeger, where they’ll be performing a very personal set based on motherhood, with songs like “A Sleepin’ Bee,” which she shared on her social media after revealing Lulu’s birth. And of course, for those of you jonesing for more Benko this holiday season, there’s her holiday album from last year which features a jazzy and wonderful take on the Yiddish classic “Tumbalalaika.”
At the end of a year of upheaval for all of us, and a personally life-altering year for Benko, recording “Hanukkah on Broadway” was a moment of light. Being able to participate in something meant to “inspire a lot of hope and joy and community — that’s the antidote.” As she stood there, sharing with that mellifluous voice what she calls “a message of hope for the Jewish community, the Broadway community, all of us who have gone through a pretty hard year,” she thought about how she’d be able to show this video to the little girl in that hotel room in the future — this video of her singing the same song that she sings as a lullaby to soothe her at home, sending this message of hope, a message that “we’re just going to keep doing what we love and keep making art and keep spreading messages of positivity and community.”
“Hopefully,” Benko says, she’ll raise a daughter in a world that believes in all these things, “and she’ll feel really supported and and empowered to save the world.”
In the meantime, Benko, Schwartz and the Broadway community are here to offer that same kind of solace to every Jewish person watching the video across the world, our own personal, wonderful Hanukkah lullaby.
Watch here:
