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Act One

Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz of the Bronx Home for Aged Hebrews (played by the same actress playing Hannah Pitt) stands onstage with a small coffin. It is late October, 1985. He delivers a eulogy for Sarah Ironson, Louis’s grandmother, in a heavy Eastern European accent. Sarah, whom he says he did not actually know very well, represents an entire generation of people who “crossed the ocean,� who landed in America, “the melting pot that never melted,� and who struggled “for the family, for the Jewish home.� He urges the mourners to preserve their ancient cultures and traditions, because “Pretty soon� all the old will be dead.�

It is the same day and we are in the office of Roy Cohn, a successful New York Republican lawyer with tremendous political influence. Roy is juggling several phone calls with various clients, spitting and cursing as he does so, while Joe Pitt, a chief clerk for the Federal Court of Appeals, patiently waits in his office. Finally, Joe asks Roy to stop taking