David Greenbaum

David Greenbaum
Fictional Character
Broadway Revival by Laura Frankos POD: April 10, 1934
Type of Appearance:	Direct narrator
Nationality:	United States
Religion:	Judaism (non-observant)
Date of Birth:	2046
Occupation:	Stage actor, Composer
Spouse:	Ramon Abarca (d. 2078)
Relatives:	Nate (brother) Isis (sister-in-law) Rose, Hannah, (nieces) Bertram (nephew)

David Greenbaum a.k.a. Joseph David Cohen, a.k.a. J.D. Taylor (b. 2046) was a stage actor and composer in New York City. He was an aficionado of Broadway theatre, as was his late husband, Ramon Abarca. During Greenbaum's life, humanity had discovered the secret of time travel. David's brother, Nate, was a professional time traveler. After Ramon died in July 2078, David Greenbaum launched a plan to illegally travel to the past to attempt to prevent the early deaths of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Vincent Youmans, Jerome Kern, Lorenz Hart, and Marc Blitzstein, a scheme he privately dubbed the "Broadway Revival Project".

Preparation for Time Travel

Greenbaum met Ramon Abarca during the centennial production of Follies. Greenbaum played Young Ben, and Abarca was one of the dancers. A few weeks into their relationship, Greenbaum took Abarca to meet Greenbaum's brother Nate and his family. Abarca was entranced by the idea that Nate was a Ripper, and made several jokes about going back in time to watch early Broadway shows. This was the initial seed for David Greenbaum's "Broadway Revival" plan.

Abarca became addicted to a narcotic called Tantalus 3 in about 2076. Abarca, and by extension Greenbaum and Abarca's family, went through the cycle of addiction until Abarca finally died in July, 2078. Immediately after Abarca's funeral, Greenbaum put his plan into action.

On August 18, 2078, while Greenbaum was in Trenton, he agreed to allow Rose and her friend Zanzi Stubbs stay at his apartment in Greenwich Village when an accident shut down their subway line. The two girls were in the apartment alone for a time, and Rose explored, finding items that suggested to her that David might be manufacturing drugs. Further, when David returned, she saw that he'd gained weight and looked very tired. He claimed that he'd taken up photography as a new hobby. When he let the girls go through various items that had belong to Ramon, he angrily warned Rose to leave a particular box alone. When Rose shared her concerns with her parents the next day, they ascribed it to David processing her grief. The next day, in his diary, Greenbaum admitted he hadn't covered himself in glory. He was frustrated that he couldn't share his plans with Rose, as Rose was the only person who could understand his plans.

Greenbaum continued his preparations throughout the remainder of the year, obtaining the resources he need to pass of a denizen of 1934, and the various modern medical supplies he hoped would prevent or cure various diseases that prematurely killed the composers and artists wanted to save. This involved trips to San Bernardino, Mexico City, and Hong Kong. He also manufactured the identity of Joseph David Cohen, whose birth records were "lost" during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and whose family died during the 1918 flu pandemic. Further, he continued to talk to Nate about the technical aspects of time travel. However, only Rose seemed to find this strange, as time travel had been a sort of running joke among the Greenbaum brothers and Ramon. He also would not commit to Rose living with him in the event she was accepted to college in the city.

Back to 1934

On January 19, 2079, Nate Greenbaum was scheduled to go back in time at noon. David Greenbaum had sufficiently altered his appearance to resemble Nate that he was ready to put his plan into action. However, the plan was almost foiled when Rose came to visit him as he was preparing to leave. After a tense conversation, Rose volunteered to go with him to the SlingShot at Yale to reduce the risks posed to him and the techs. Greenbaum finally agreed. With Rose acting as if she were seeing her father off, David Greenbaum was sent into the past.

Greenbaum woke up in Yosemite National Park on March 20, 1934. He was able to get a ride to Fresno. From Fresno he took the bus to San Francisco. He stayed here for a few days to further develop the Joseph David Cohen identity, primarily by contacting Rabbi Michael Epstein and his wife, Shirley. During an afternoon conversation, Greenbaum was able to associate "Cohen" with real people and events in the Epsteins' minds.

By April 6, 1934, Greenbaum was established in a new Greenwich Village apartment, and had begun jogging and boxing to lose the weight he'd gained to impersonate his brother, stored various future items around the apartment, and began working out how to get into a Broadway job, as the people he planned to save were generally out of reach. While most of them weren't in any immediate danger, Greenbaum calculated that Vincent Youmans' tuberculosis was starting to take hold, and that he'd be traveling to Colorado for a rest cure.

A few days after moving in, Greenbaum's neighbors introduced themselves. He had an impromptu dinner party with Frannie Spinelli and her young son, Leo, and married couple Adam and Mabel Finkelstein. (This meeting was the actual "breakpoint" for the Splinterverse Greenbaum created; Greenbaum began teaching Leo Spinelli piano a few days later, and their association would eventually lead to Spinelli becoming an important Broadway composer. Greenbaum would not learn any of this for several decades.) Greenbaum introduced himself as a composer and occasional stage actor. Adam Finkelstein was a dancer, using the less Jewish name of "Adam Flint". Greenbaum took the suggestion, claiming he used "J.D. Taylor". By happy coincidence, Adam had been in Vincent Youmans' short-lived Through the Years. He maintained contacts with people in the show, and offered to help Greenbaum get in touch with William Merrigan Daly for possible work on the stage. Greenbaum naturally accepted.