Skokie and its environs have been good to the veteran comic Jackie Mason over the years. This year, Mason has not returned the favor.

In April, the infamous funnyman cancelled an engagement at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts at the last minute. His representative said he was working on a TV pilot.

Those nights were re-scheduled for October. Some of his fans elected to have their money refunded, but many rolled their tickets over to the new dates.

Today Mason told the theater he was cancelling again. No reason was given for the nixing of the October dates, and Mason's rep has not returned my call for comment.

Also Tuesday, Mason announced he would perform his new show, "No Holds Barred" at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles in January.

"We won't be rescheduling," said Michael Pauken, the North Shore Center's irritated general manager, as he prepared to refund his patrons' money.  "Twice is enough. We're done."

THEATER REVIEW: "A Jew Grows in Brooklyn" (★ ★ 1/2) Through Sunday at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie; $45-$57.50 at 847-673-6300 and www.northshorecenter.org. Starring Jake Ehrenreich, above.

If you're Billy Crystal, you can call your warmhearted autobiographical Broadway show something arty like "700 Sundays." If your name is Jake Ehrenreich and you hope to actually sell some tickets, it's smarter to cut to the descriptive chase: "A Jew Grows in Brooklyn." That tells people what they need to know.

Given the content of his memoir with music, Ehrenreich could have called his show "A Jew Grows in Brooklyn and Dies on Stage in the Catskills." Or, given the number of audience members Wednesday night who, to the performer's clear amazement, shouted out their intimate acquaintance with the cultural minutiae of that storied borough, circa 1965, "A Jew Grows in Brooklyn and Moves to Skokie."

With its re-creation of a childhood home and projected Kodak prints, Ehrenreich owes much to the Crystal model. Of course, Crystal is a megawatt celebrity and Ehrenreich is not. Details, details. To compensate, Ehrenreich hangs his hat on the travails and achievements of the first-generation American—i.e. himself—who wants to honor the traditions and sacrifices of his immigrant parents, in this case stoic Holocaust survivors, and also make his own all-American way.

He sings with his band. He plays trumpet. He retells old Catskills jokes. He shows off his family photos and, at the end of the night, his charming son. And he talks. Boy, does this guy talk.

THEATER REVIEW: "Church Basement Ladies" runs through Sept. 27 at the North Shore Center for the Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes. Tickets: $38-48 at 847-673-6300 and www.northshorecenter.org.

Direct from the Minnesota State Fair! A recent hit at the Turkeyville USA Dinner Theatre! And now arriving at that well-known bastion of Lutheranism: Skokie!

OK, so there are Lutherans everywhere, and it’s easy to mock the comedy-musical “Church Basement Ladies,” a celebration of the dispensers of Lutheran ecclesiastical cuisine (circa 1964), and another entry in the theatrical lexicon under Upper Midwest Gothic.

If you head to Door County or the “Cities” (as these subterranean madams of Cornucopia, Minn., call the Sodom and Gomorrah of Minneapolis and St. Paul), you’ll see the likes of “Lumberjacks in Love” and “How To Talk Minnesotan: The Musical” all over the place. The good people of the North like to laugh at themselves and their heritage. Indoors.

Most of those shows don’t descend further south than Racine, which is probably a good thing for all concerned. But “Church Basement Ladies” has global ambitions. And it has the former M*A*S*H star William Christopher playing the clergyman and juicing up the box office action. Kinda.

The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie has booked a week-long run of "A Jew Grows in Brooklyn," the autobiographical comedy-musical by Jake Ehrenreich.

Ehrenreich, a Broadway performer and a singer-musician, recounts his 1960s youth in Brooklyn as a first-generation immigrant and a child of Holocaust survivors. The piece enjoyed long runs at both the Lamb's Theatre in New York and in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The show plays the North Shore Center from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9. Visit www.northshorecenter.org for more information.