Unity native, Broadway vet Jerad Bortz stays thankful after life-changing accident
Going into 2018, Unity native Jerad Bortz had a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which was a successful career on Broadway, including 12 years with the hit musical “Wicked.”
That could have changed forever in early February of that year, when a car accident left him with a cervical spinal cord injury and paralyzed from the chest down and without movement in his hands.
But going forward, through rehabilitation and adjusting to life in a wheelchair, the New York City resident has worked to maintain an attitude of gratitude — which he’s expressing in a new album, “THANKFUL: An Album for Jerad Bortz,” now available on iTunes and Amazon.
The album features 22 original songs by Bortz’s partner, Steven Skeels, an actor, songwriter, recording artist and producer whose stage credits include Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Starlight Express.”
“Working on the album was a return to normalcy for us, the kind of activity we’d done before the accident,” Bortz said. “It was one thing we could control. It was a welcome distraction.”
Skeels was in the car with Bortz at the time of the accident, suffering injuries including a concussion and fractured wrist.
“It was while I was doing ‘Wicked,’” Bortz said. “I had just finished the eighth show of the week on Sunday evening. You know, Broadway is dark on Monday, so that was my only day off.
“On Sunday evening, Steven would pack up the car and park outside the theater. I would come out the door, jump in the driver’s seat and away we would go to the Poconos. That was our routine,” he said.
“It was like a mini-vacation when you only had one day off a week. I had bought a little cabin in the woods and, having grown up in a rural area, it was the best escape from the concrete of the city.”
The accident happened on Interstate 80, about 2 miles from their exit. Weather conditions may have been a factor, Bortz said.
“I really don’t remember much about the accident,” he said, but it left him with a fracture of his sixth cervical vertebra.
Support and inspiration
In the aftermath, he was buoyed by the support of friends who reached out and offered performing opportunities, including developing new works and singing off-screen during the 2019 Tony Awards and at benefit concerts.
“I was fortunate to have friends who believed in me when I wasn’t sure I had value any more,” he said. “My whole value was in my physicality and my body. It was upsetting and challenging.”
Through it all, there was his partner, too.
“Steven’s been a real inspiration,” said Bortz’s mother, Beverly Bortz. “They’d been together 18 years before the accident. Jerad said, ‘It never crossed my mind once that he would leave.’ They have such an intense love.”
Skeels also has a deep catalog of original songs, which led to creation of the album.
The pair combed the catalog for songs they could pair with people they knew in the performing community. Recording sessions started in December 2018.
“We picked the fanciest people we thought we could cajole into participating,” Bortz said.
Among more that two dozen performers are familiar names such as Megan Hilty, Ben Vereen and Ali Stroker, the first actress who uses a wheelchair to appear on Broadway and to be nominated for and win a Tony Award (in 2019 for “Oklahoma”).
Bortz and Skeels sing the album’s title track, and Skeels was co-producer.
Participants, including singers, arrangers, orchestrators and musicians, donated their time to the effort.
Executive and lead producer Lynn Pinto of Rock-It Science Records was “the biggest piece of the puzzle,” Bortz said, personally funding studio time and personnel. Pinto is a performer also known for creating and producing all 21 volumes of the annual holiday album, “Broadway’s Carols for a Cure,” which benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
A good heart
“THANKFUL” proceeds will raise funds for Bortz’s ongoing medical needs, with a portion also intended for The Actors Fund of America and Canine Companions for Independence, organizations that supported Bortz after his injury.
While the album is available now on iTunes and Amazon, Bortz said, there also are plans to produce CDs. Anyone interested in purchasing a physical copy can email thankfulbenefitalbum@gmail.com.
“Working on the album has been healing in so many ways,” Skeels said. “Creating has always provided an escape in times of stress and uncertainty, as well as a way to express and process emotions and experience. I’m so proud of what we were able to create and for the generosity of so many artists.”
Bortz grew up in the Lawson Heights neighborhood of Unity and is a 1997 graduate of Greater Latrobe Senior High School. He first took to the local stage with Greensburg Civic Theatre’s Greasepaint Players and also danced “The Nutcracker” with Laurel Ballet.
He moved to New York after earning a degree from the prestigious musical theater program at Ithaca College in New York.
Going forward, he and Skeels hope to do concerts in support of the album, possibly this fall or winter.
His mother has another possible career path for him, relating that he was asked to sing at a school where many of the students use wheelchairs. Afterward, parents, teachers and administrators reached out to thank him for the positive impact he had on the kids.
“I told him, ‘Jerad, you have no idea the effect you have on people,’” Beverly Bortz said. “He has such a good heart, he just has to figure out new ways to use it.
“I think he needs to be a motivational speaker.”
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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