(JTA) — Actress Carol Channing, who originated the starring role in “Hello Dolly!” on Broadway and won a Tony Award for her portrayal of the boisterous widow, has died. She was 97. Channing was the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Christian father and identified as “part Jewish.” At 16,...
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By CURT SCHLEIER
(JTA) — It has been more than 35 years since Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy” opened on Broadway. At the time it was a theatrical revelation: Who could have imagined that the story of a young gay Jewish man’s quest for love and validation in a world...
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By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“)
If anyone questioned if Shelbie Mac is the greatest young talent to come down the pike since the late Cynthia Owen, all doubts have been erased with her starring role in Peter Pan, currently playing the boards at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center...
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(JTA) — Playwright Neil Simon, known for such Broadway hits as “The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot in the Park,” and “Lost in Yonkers” has died.
Simon, who earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, died overnight Saturday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City from complications with pneumonia at...
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By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”)
Few Broadway composers had a bigger impact than Richard Rodgers, who began his career with Jewish lyricist Lorenz Hart, but whose greatest success was with librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. Hammerstein, whose grandfather was a famous Jewish impresario on Broadway, was raised under...
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By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“)
For the past seven weeks, Broadway history has been made through a spectacular bit of casting that only rarely occurs when the world of celluloid intersects with that of the Great White Way.
Hollywood has frequently contributed to the Broadway scene. Interestingly,...
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(JTA) — Two children were killed by a car that hit them on a pedestrian crossing in Brooklyn, seriously injuring their mothers, including the Tony Award-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles, and another man.
Miles, whose real name is Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, is in the hospital and her 4-year-old daughter...
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By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out”)
There is a bittersweet irony with the musical score of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” animated film. It is the first and only coupling of two of the greatest Jewish Broadway composers of recent times in Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Yet,...
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By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out”)
When ballet stars Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope began their roles as expatriate American artist Jerry Mulligan and native Parisian ballerina Lise Dassin, they had no way of knowing their performances would last for most of three years as they opened first...
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By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“)
There’s no doubt that this is a troubling time of year to be Jewish. With red and green ribbons festooning the sides of buildings and spectacular light displays at night dazzling the eyes, Jews are never more aware of how much a...
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