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