UPDATED: theatre’s Jewish connections
By ALAN SMASON
This week local theaters are filled with several offerings of interest to the New Orleans Jewish community. With Steven Schwartz’s “Wicked” ensconced at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, New Orleanians are busy setting new attendance records downtown. (See ticket information at the conclusion of this article.)
The national tour of Stephen Schwartz's "Wicked" continues at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts (Photo courtesy Broadway Across America)
Schwartz, the hit producing composer and lyricist for “Pippin” (now being revived on The Great White Way) and “Godspell” and three-time Academy Award winner for his work in film, was spotted in town this week making an impromptu visit to the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA).
NOCCA was the scene this weekend for the continuation of the “Broadway at NOCCA” series as five-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald was hosted to an interview session and accompanied on piano by Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s Seth Rudetsky. Rudetsky, who has been down for earlier shows featuring Patti LuPone, Sutton Foster and Megan Mullally will be back in two more weeks as the series concludes with Megan Hilty, also known for her work in “Wicked” as Glinda and more recently as one of the stars of TV’s “Smash.”
Hilty will be down with Rudetsky on June 1, around the same time the series finale of “Smash” with songs composed by award-winning composer Marc Shaiman, airs over the NBC television network.
Producer Mark Cortale announced he was very pleased with tickets sales for the series. Tickets for the single 7:30 p.m. show with Megan Hilty, the last in this year’s “Broadway at NOCCA” series, can be purchased online here.
Meanwhile, across town Jule Styne’s music and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics for “Gypsy,” the fictionalized account of the life of burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, was hit by a major crisis. Performances were cancelled last week, the second week in the run at the Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts in Kenner. Actress and cabaret singer Lisa Picone, cast in the leading role of Mama Rose, suffered the ill effects of a sinus infection that played havoc with her vocal abilities. She was ordered by her doctor to complete rest while healing, which could affect this week’s performances. An additional Thursday night performance was quickly added to the schedule for May 23, but if Picone’voice does not show marked improvement, that night’s show and the remainder of the run’s final days may be in jeopardy. Tickets can be purchased online here, but for more information, call the theater office at 504-461-9475.
Janet Shea, right, plays elderly Jewish Atlanta resident Daisy Wertham with Donald Lewis as her chauffeur Hoke. (Photo by Alan Smason)
Jewish content is found beneath the surface of the Jefferson Performing Arts Society’s current production of “Driving Miss Daisy” at the Westwego! Teatro across the river in Westwego. “Driving Miss Daisy” is a play written by Alexander Uhry, the first part of “The Atlanta Trilogy,” which detailed the lives of the Jewish residents of Atlanta during the first half of the Twentieth Century. In the play, which is the only off-Broadway play to be made into a film and win the Academy Award for Best Picture, the role of Daisy Wertham is established as an elderly Jewish resident. Her son Booley, played in this production by Kristopher Shaw, hires Hoke, an elderly black man to be her chauffeur for the 23 years that begin in 1948 and continue until 1972.
The point is made in the course of the play when the character, played locally by Janet Shea, a soon-to-be retired NOCCA teacher and first lady of the New Orleans stage, utters the line “Jews have no business giving Christmas presents.”
Tickets for the final week of “Driving Miss Daisy” shows can be purchased online here or are available at the door at 177 Sala Avenue in Westwego.
Tickets for “Wicked” can be purchased online through Ticketmaster here or, if one feels lucky, a lottery of choice orchestra seats is held each day two and a half hours before showtime (5:30 p.m at the Mahalia Jackson Theater box office for most nights). Winners of the lottery can purchase two (2) tickets each for $25 cash. Lottery entrants are required to supply a photo ID at the time they enter. Winners are announced a half hour later, or approximately two hours before the performance. The lottery time for matinees would be 11:30 a.m. with winners announced at 12 noon.
