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