50 | MARCH 9 • 2023 

T

hey were two talented New Yorkers 
from Brooklyn and Roosevelt Island 
who met as freshmen at the Fiorello 
H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art 
and Performing Arts, also known as the 
“Fame” school. They went to Ithaca College 
together. And, in a bold move, they even 
auditioned as a duo for the coveted leads on 
the national tour of The Simon & Garfunkel 
Story.
For two shows on Saturday, March 18, 
at Detroit’s Music Hall, Jonah Bobo will be 
singing as Paul Simon and Brendan Jacob 
Smith joins him as Art Garfunkel in the 
critically acclaimed concert-style show that 

celebrates the music of the folk-rock legends. 
The show follows Simon and Garfunkel’s 
early beginnings through the ’60s, their split 
in 1970 and their “Concert in Central Park” 
reunion in 1981.
Bobo and Smith, along with a live four-
piece band, will perform the top Simon and 
Garfunkel hits including “Mrs. Robinson,
” 
“Cecilia,
” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,
” 
“Homeward Bound” and many more. The 
show uses state-of-the-art video projection, 
photos and original film footage to provide 
an immersive concert experience. 
“It’s unbelievable how Brendan and my 
story mirrors Simon and Garfunkel’s in such 

a close way. We were all Jewish boys who 
grew up in New York and started performing 
together in high school as a duo,
” says Bobo, 
who was raised Conservative in a kosher 
home. “Paul Simon is one of my biggest 
heroes, so the fact that he is Jewish means 
a lot to me. To fill the shoes of two iconic 
Jews with our Jewish feet, I think that’s very 
special.
”
Bobo and Smith started performing Simon 
and Garfunkel covers at age 14 for their high 
school talent showcase — a big deal then, 
according to Bobo, since students typically 
don’t get cast their first year.
“Brendan and I bonded over our love of 
vocal harmony. And while neither of us were 
big listeners of Simon and Garfunkel before 
we met, I played guitar and he sang, and we 
would cut class and go into the stairwell to 
sing,
” says Bobo, who plays guitar onstage in 
The Simon & Garfunkel Story and also plays 
the piano, drums, bass, mandolin, banjo, 
pedal steel, violin, dobro, oud and taishogoto.
The high school talent showcase was the 
beginning of Bobo and Smith’s Simon and 
Garfunkel years and, through high school 
and college, they would perform songs 
together by Simon and Garfunkel along 
with Crosby, Stills and Nash and the Everly 
Brothers. For two years at Ithaca College, 
Bobo wrote and worked on the Star of 
Lennox as an extracurricular project. It was 
produced senior year and starred Smith as 
the lead character, Jasper Lamoureaux. Star 
of Lennox received distinctions from the 
Richard Rodgers Award Foundation and 
Eugene O’Neill National Theatre Center.
“It was a very intense but beautiful show,
” 
said Smith, who graduated in 2019 from 

ARTS&LIFE
THEATER

From high school to a national tour, 
Jonah Bobo and Brendan Jacob Smith 
are Simon and Garfunkel.

Homeward 
Bound

JULIE SMITH YOLLES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

DETAILS

The Simon & Garfunkel Story will be 
performed at the Music Hall in Detroit at 
2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 18. 
Tickets start at $34 (includes facility fee) 
and can be purchased online at www.
BroadwayinDetroit.com, www.ticket-
master.com and in person at the Fisher 
Theatre Box Office. The Music Hall is 
located at 350 Madison Ave. in Detroit. 
For more information, visit 
www.thesimonandgarfunkelstory.com.

LEFT: Brendan Jacob Smith and 
Jonah Bobo star in the Simon & 
Garfunkel Story at the Detroit Music 
Hall for two shows on March 18. 

PHOTO BY TIMOTHY NORRIS

