Above and Beyond - Brother Theodore
The New Yorker Nov. 14th 2005

Theodore Gottlieb, whose stage name was Brother Theodore and who died at age ninety-four in 2001, performed "apocalyptic one-man shows about life, death and brocooli in Greenwich Village nightclubs to dazzling and disturbing effect," according to his Times obituary. Gottlieb was born into wealth in Dusseldorf and lived a hedonistic life style until the Nazis took over and he landed in Dachau; he escaped from the camp by surrendering his family fortune and gained entry into the United States with the help of Albert Einstein, a close friend of his mother. Though Gottlieb's career as an entertainer was successful(sold-out shows at Town Hall in the fifties, multiple appearances on Merv Griffin's talk show in the late sixties and on David Letterman's in the eighties), only a few folks remember him today. One of the more devoted is Jeff Sumerel, a filmmaker from South Carolina who is currently working on a documentary about Gottlieb's life. Sumerel visits Brooklyn to screen rare television footage and parts of the forthcoming film on Nov. 11 at 7.(Barbes, 376 9th St., Park Slope. 718-965-9177.)