John Monsky can trace his passion for World War II history to his childhood neighbor in Jacksonville.
Monsky will be joined Sept. 30 by the Jacksonville Symphony, four Broadway performers and a guest conductor at the Moran Theater for “Eyes of the World,” his multimedia show about the final months of World War II in Europe.
Monsky grew up in Jacksonville, the son of educator John Monsky and Joan Monsky, who founded the Jacksonville Film Festival and the Theatreworks program for children. He’s a lawyer and head of a New York investment firm, but he said he’s always had a passion for history and theater.
The theater part was unavoidable. “We never knew what actor or actress or troupe would be staying at our house,” he said.
He was first bitten by the history bug when he met his neighbor, who had been shot five times while storming Omaha Beach on D-Day. “The research for this show started when I was six.”
He’s a graduate of the Bolles School, Yale and Harvard, but never forgot his Jacksonville roots. “Jacksonville is home for me, so I’m excited to be coming back. I’m the only guy in the bar in downtown Manhattan wearing a Jacksonville jersey on Sundays.”
He still has family in town, and his sister plans to travel from New York for the show, which has only been performed a handful of times — at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, with the Boston Pops and at the White House.
“Eyes of the World” follows the 4th Infantry Division from the D-Day invasion to the end of the war in Europe. It’s told through the eyes of four artists who were along for the ride.
Images come from photojournalist Lee Miller, one of the few women allowed to photograph the war, and Life Magazine correspondent Robert Capa, who was already a veteran war photographer before the conflict even broke out. Words come from novelist and Collier’s Magazine correspondent Ernest Hemingway and J.D. Salinger, who was a soldier, serving as a counterintelligence agent with the division. “You’ll never read ‘Catcher in the Rye’ the same way again,” Monsky said.
The show isn’t just Monsky talking about the war and showing photos. Monsky, Miller, Capa, Hemingway and Salinger will be sharing the stage with around 60 musicians from the Jacksonville Symphony, guest conductor Ian Weinberger from “Hamilton,” and Broadway performers Shereen Ahmed, Kate Rockwell, Nicholas Rodriguez and Daniel Yearwood. They’ll sing songs of the era and more than 200 historic photos will be shown.
“We typically watch the war through the accounts of generals and soldiers,” Monsky said. “It’s different to watch it through artists’ eyes. It’s not all glory. They saw the heartbreak that our troops suffered, some moments that were difficult to comprehend.”
Salinger’s division landed at Utah Beach with 3,000 men. Only about 300 made it through the war.
Monsky said the most emotional performance of “Eyes of the World” was at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, where 20 surviving World War II veterans were in attendance.” I went out in the audience and shook the hand of every one of those guys,” he said. “Amazing. They were all 99 years old, 100. They were part of that Greatest Generation.”
The show came about by accident, when Monsky injured his back and met a trainer who also worked with actors. That led him to create a program on the Vietnam War for Carnegie Hall. He’s also got a “Great Gatsby”-themed World War I show and is working on another about World War II in the Pacific.
Tickets for “Eyes of the World” are $100-$250.
The show is presented by the Women’s Board of Wolfson Children’s Hospital and benefits the creation of an enclosed outdoor healing space for children in the hospital’s new Behavioral Health & Wellness Unit. The board also sponsors the annual Florida Forum speakers series in Jacksonville, which will bring in WNBA star Caitlin Clark on Oct. 29, human-rights activist Vladimir Kara-Murza on Feb. 3 and chef José Andrés on March 31.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Symphony, Broadway performers to join historian for multimedia WWII show in Jacksonville
Reporting by Tom Szaroleta, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
