There’s something almost poetic about the fact that The Happiest Man on Earth is coming to the Sydney Opera House.
Eddie Jaku survived Auschwitz, rebuilt his life in Sydney, and spent his later years volunteering at the Sydney Jewish Museum, sharing his story with anyone who would listen — school groups, university students, and eventually a crowd of 6000 people at a TEDx talk that stopped a publisher in their tracks.
He sold 400,000 hardback copies of his memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth, on home soil alone. And now, posthumously, he’s getting his very own one-man show at one of the most iconic venues on the planet. If ever a story belonged on that stage, it’s his.
The production, written by American playwright Mark St Germain, was a long time coming. The family has been involved since the beginning, with St Germain consulting them at every point, asking their opinions to ensure the story was as close to Eddie’s own words as possible.
In Australia, actor and producer Anton Berezin, who will be taking on the title role, told The AJN that the Sydney Opera House is absolutely where Eddie’s story belongs. Berezin said, however, that they ran into some obstacles when it came to making him look the age Eddie was when he told his story.
“The biggest issue we had was, who’s going to play Eddie? Because we needed a Jewish man of a certain age, and there’s not many of us in this country in theatre,” Berezin said.
Transforming into a convincing 90-something has been its own undertaking. Berezin brought in wig maker Kylie Clark — a collaborator across his 30-year career in commercial musical theatre — and makeup artist Fiona Cooper Sutherland to do the work. The production was set to launch in December before being delayed due to the Chanukah terror attack at Bondi Beach. Berezin said this made the need to tell the story feel more urgent.
What gives his performance its particular weight, though, is something far more personal. Berezin, born in Russia and raised in Australia, discovered only in his early 40s, through his daughter’s research online, that his grandmother had been a Holocaust survivor. Her name was in the Yad Vashem registry. His mother didn’t know. His grandmother had never spoken of it.
“When I first read Eddie’s book, it was very therapeutic for me. I started to put some pieces together about some of my grandmother’s, let’s say, odd behaviour,” he said, adding that he appreciated Eddie’s attitude to life. “I loved, I’ve always been so admiring of his capacity to make positive choices and to turn his mind to the positive.”
For Eddie’s son Michael, the Opera House feels like the right destination for a story that has, in many ways, taken on a life of its own.
It’s a story that began with Eddie’s TEDx talk, led to Pan Macmillan approaching the family about a memoir, an offer Eddie initially resisted, not wanting to add to the pile of survivor books already in the world, and eventually gave rise to a children’s picture book, The Happiest Boy on Earth, so that his great-grandchildren could engage with their own family history.
“Australian audiences — this is where, if anywhere, it had to be shown. This is where Eddie had, if you want to call it, a fan club,” Jaku said. “I mean, how prestigious can you get for a play based on an Australian book?”
He pointed out though that Berezin has a tougher job than his American counterpart, explaining that the role has only ever been played by Kenneth Tigar, a Jewish American actor with a German background. Jaku said he’s sure Berezin will do an excellent job, but he is performing for audiences who actually knew Eddie, which puts a bit more pressure on the production.
And for Jaku, watching someone else play his father will be a different kind of experience. But, he said, the whole family is exceptionally proud to see the story on stage, adding to the various ways audiences can engage with Eddie and his story.
The book shows no signs of slowing down. As recently as the second half of last year it was still averaging 500 copies a week, and Jaku said he hopes the play carries the same spirit it did when it was released during COVID, landing at a moment when people needed something to hold onto.
“I’m hoping that in these difficult times we’re going through right now, both with Israel and antisemitism, this play might have a similar effect,” Jaku said.
Berezin, too, is thinking about the bigger picture. The production arrives alongside The Diary of Anne Frank and Fiddler on the Roof — three major Jewish stories on mainstream Australian stages within months of each other.
“Two years ago, we were all frightened to have our mezuzah on the door. Now, here we are,” he said.
Indeed, here we are, sharing a story of a man who went through the worst of evils, and still managed to emerge as the happiest man on earth. What a lesson for us all.
The Happiest Man on Earth plays at the Sydney Opera House Playhouse from May 12 for a limited run. For tickets, visit sydneyoperahouse.com/theatre/happiest-man-earth
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