Arts & Entertainment
Big Apple Adventure
Our seasonal Broadway guide to plays with a Jewish twist.
Alice Burdick Schweiger
Special to Jewish News
B
ritish imports, new American
musicals, productions moving
from Off-Broadway to the Great
White Way and a movie-turned-stage pro-
duction best describe this theater season
in New York.
Unlike other years when one Broadway
show gets all the attention — and the
majority of awards, too — this season
serves up several contenders that could
nab a bunch of coveted Tonys. The salute
to the best of Broadway will be telecast
live as the 61st Annual Tony Awards airs 8-
11 p.m. Sunday, June 10, on CBS.
Leading the pack with 11 Tony nomi-
nations is Spring Awakening, the rock
musical about the sexual desires of 19th-
century teenagers. Grey Gardens, the musi-
cal about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis'
eccentric and reclusive relatives, and The
Coast of Utopia, Jewish-born playwright
Tom Stoppard's trilogy about 19th-century
Russian intellectuals, each garnered 10
nominations.
Other big nominees include Curtains,
with eight nominations; Legally Blonde and
Mary Poppins, each with seven nomina-
tions; and Coram Boy, with six nominations.
According to Charlotte St. Martin, execu-
tive director of the League of American
Theatres and Producers, "This has been an
incredibly diverse Broadway season, with
record-breaking grosses and attendance."
As in most years, there are plenty of
dramas and musicals with a Jewish connec-
tion. Here is a sampling of our spring picks
now on Broadway and Off-Broadway stages.
BROADWAY
A Chorus Line
In a string of show-stopping musi-
cal numbers, 17 dancers audition for
their dream of a lifetime: to perform on
Broadway. One by one, the dancers step up
and tell their captivating stories.
The score is by the Jewish composing
team of Marvin Hamlisch (music) and the
late Edward Kleban (lyrics). The show's
lighting designer, Natasha Katz, is married
to former Detroiter (and sound designer)
Dan Moses Schreier.
At the Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W 45th
St. (212) 239-6200.
126 May 24 • 2007
Coram Boy
Taking place over eight years in 18th-
century England, this epic adventure,
with a 40-person cast and chorus, is
based on British author Jamila Gavin's
young adult novel about orphans at the
Coram Hospital for Deserted Children.
With extraordinary staging and featuring
a Handel-sound-alike score with some
real Handel thrown in, Coram Boy was
first produced at the National Theater in
London.
Jewish cast member Laura Heisler, a
New Jersey native who earned a BFA in
musical theatre from the University of
Michigan, is making her Broadway debut.
She plays a young boy named Edward
Ashbrook.
At the Imperial Theatre, 249 W 45th St.
(212) 239-6200.
Kritzer is in the cast.
At the Palace Theatre, 1564 Broadway.
(212) 307-4100.
Winter.
At the Eugene O'Neill Theater, 230 W
49th St. (212) 239-6200.
Grey Gardens
Starring Christine Ebersole and adapted
from the 1975 documentary film by
Jewish documentary filmmakers and
brothers Albert and David Maysles, this
musical is set in the tony Hamptons. It
tells the story of Jackie Kennedy Onassis'
eccentric aunt, Edith Bouvier Beale, and
her adult daughter, little Edie, socialites
who became notorious recluses.
Music is by Jewish composer Scott
Frankel, who began his career as a musi-
cal director for shows including Into the
Woods and Falsettos.
At the Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W 48th
St. (212) 239-6200.
Talk Radio
In Eric Bogosian's play, first staged Off-
Broadway, Liev Schreiber plays contro-
versial and vituperative late-night radio
shock jock Barry Champlain.
Schreiber, who won a 2005 Tony as Best
Featured Actor in a Play for Glengarry
Glen Ross, is Jewish on his mother's side.
Playwright Bogosian, who is of Armenian
descent, also is an actor and currently
plays Jewish Captain Danny Ross on NBC's
Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
At the Longacre Theater, 220 W 48th St.
(212) 239-6200.
Les Miserables
Curtains
After a long, successful Broadway run
Set in 1959 at Boston's Colonial Theatre,
and a three-year hiatus, this Victor Hugo
this musical tells the story of a talent-less
epic is back on the New York
leading actress who
stage. The Jewish creative team
dies on opening night
includes French-born Claude-
during her curtain call.
Michel Schonberg (music),
While investigating the
Tunisian-born Main Boublil
murder, a police detec-
(libretto) and South African-
tive, played by David
born Herbert Kretzmer (lyrics).
Hyde Pierce, falls in love
At the Broadhurst Theater, 235
with theater and tries to
W 44th St. (212) 239-6200.
make the show a hit.
The show's Jewish
Mary Poppins
creative team includes
This high-energy Walt Disney
John Kander (music),
classic — the story of the British
the late Fred Ebb (lyr-
Banks family and how their
ics) and Peter Stone
lives change after the arrival of
(book). Kander and
a magical nanny — is based on
David Hyde Pier ce in
Ebb's long collabora-
the 1964 film and features spec-
tion produced the hits
Curtains
tacular special effects.
Cabaret, Chicago and
Lyrics are by Jewish songwriting broth-
Fosse.
At the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 W 45th ers Robert and Richard Sherman.
At the New Amsterdam Theatre, 214 W
St. (212) 239-6200.
42nd St. (212) 307-4100.
Legally Blonde
Spring Awakening
A musical version of the film of the same
Based on the once controversial and scan-
name, Legally Blonde's Elle Woods is a
dalous 1891 German expressionist play
college girl, sorority star and fashionista
by Frank Wedekind, this coming-of-age
whose boyfriend breaks up with her for
alternative rock musical tackles first sex,
someone smart. So she studies hard and
homosexuality, abortion and teen suicide.
sets out to go to Harvard Law School.
Music is by Duncan Sheik, with book and
Famed New York Jewish architect David
lyrics by Steven Seer.
Rockwell created the scenic design (his
Jewish director Michael Mayer's theater
design for the sculpted tigers prowling
credits include After the Fall, Thoroughly
the facade of the Detroit Tigers' Comerica
Modern Millie, Uncle Vanya, You're a Good
Park were inspired by the elephants at
Man, Charlie Brown and The Lion in
the Bronx Zoo), and Jewish actress Leslie
The Pirate Queen
With a cast of 42, this new musical tells
the story of a real-life 16th-century Irish
woman, Chieftain Grace O'Malley, who led
a life as a pirate.
Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg
and book and lyrics by Main Boublil, the
creative team behind Les Miserables and
Miss Saigon.
At the Hilton Theatre, 214 W 43rd St.
(212) 307-4100.
OFF BROADWAY
In The Heights
Produced by Jewish Oak Park native
Jeffrey Seller (Rent), this new musical
about life in the close-knit, economically
stressed Latin-American neighborhood of
New York City's Washington Heights show-
cases the Latin-pop energetic music and
choreography that make for a fun evening
at the theater.
At the 37 Arts Theater, 450 W 37th St.
(212) 307-4100.
Bill W. and Dr. Bob
This dramatization set in the late 1930s
by the Jewish writing team of Stephen
Bergman and Janet Surrey is the com-
pelling story of Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob
Smith, founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.
At the New World Stages, 340 W 50th St.
(212) 239-6200.
Gutenberg! The Musical!
In this musical spoof, aspiring playwrights
Bud and Doug audition to get their show
about Johann Gutenberg, inventor of the
printing press, produced. Bud and Doug