PHOTOS BY CAROL ROSEGG

STN Entertainment

Eric Nederlander is the first of his
generation in a renowned theatrical family
to produce a musical on Broadway.

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

t was Eric Nederlander's fi
first
opening night on Broadway as a
producer. With his family and
friends at his side, he was watch-
in the debut of his show, Play
On !, ! a lively musical loosely based
On
on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
The songs of Duke Ellington com-
prise the score. By the audience's
reaction, Nederlander was sure he
had a winner on his hands. Not
bad for a 31-year-old native De-
troiter.
"Opening night was incredible,
and the crowd was electric," says
Nederlander, who co-produced the
musical with Mitchell
Left:
Maxwell. "Seeing the
Eric Nederlander: A third-
show on the New
generation success.
York stage gave me
such a terrific sense of
Below left:
An all-African-American cast accomplishment."
The producer's
stars in Play On!, a musical
mother, Caren Ned-
which combines a story
erlander, along with
adapted from Shakespeare
with Duke Ellington songs.
his brother Robert
Nederlander Jr., was
one of her son's special guests. "It
was such a thrill for me to see my
son a producer," says the proud
mom, who lives in Bloomfield Hills
and is a psychologist at the
Franklin Center for Behavioral
Change in Southfield. "We were
all able to exchange glances and
smiles throughout the play. It was
an evening that none of us will for-
get."
Producing a Broadway play is
not an easy accomplishment. For
Nederlander, it took three years
of hard work and perseverance to
get from the drawing board to
opening night.
"I was looking for a play that I
thought could make it on Broad-
way, and I met Sheldon Epps, who
was working on a project trying to
apply Duke Ellington's music to a
classic," Nederlander recalls. "I
thought it sounded interesting,
and we decided whatever direction
the project would take, we would
do it together."

THE DETRO

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Epps felt that Twelfth Night
would be a perfect fit for the jazz
legend's music, and playwright/au-
thor Cheryl West was asked to
translate the story to 1940s
Harlem, with the swinging Cotton
Club era as the backdrop. Vy, an
aspiring songwriter from the
South who disguises herself as a
man, parallels Shakespeare's char-
acter Viola. Duke, the recording
artist whom Vy pursues and falls
in love with, is loosely based on
Orsino, Duke of Myna. And Lady
Liv, the Harlem blues singer, is
based on the wealthy Countess
Olivia.
"I think it was very cleverly
transformed," says Nederlander,
who helped select the creative
team and the all-African-Ameri-
can cast, including Tony Award-
winning actress Tonya Pinkins.
The show's choreographer is Mer-
cedes Ellington, the Duke's grand-
daughter.
The next step in bringing Play
On! to the stage was introducing
the show to the public. "When we
thought it was good enough, we
presented it at a reading in New
York," says Nederlander. "The con-
sensus was that it was hugely en-
tertaining, so we took it to the Old
Globe Theater in San Diego. They
opened the box office, and the lines
were out the door. It was the
biggest hit ever at the Old Globe."
Each night brought standing
ovations, and as a result of its re-
gional success, the producers raised
more money, perfected the show
and moved it to New York to one of
the Nederlander family-owned the-
aters, the Brooks Atkinson.
"This is the kind of play that ap-
peals to a broad audience," says
Nederlander of Play On!, which
this week received Tony nomina-
tions for Tonya Pinkins (Best Ac-
tress in a Musical), Andre De
Shields (Best Featured .Actor in
a Musical) and Luther Henderson
(Best Orchestrations).