52 | JUNE 8 • 2023 

A NEW STREAMING SERIES 
AND THE TONYS, WITH 
SPECIAL ATTENTION TO 
LEOPOLDSTADT

The Crowded Room is a 
10-episode series that begins 
streaming on Apple TV+ 
on June 9. The screenplay 
was written by Oscar-winner 
Akiva Goldsman, 60, (A 
Beautiful Mind).
Plot: Danny Sullivan (Tom 
Holland) is arrested following 
his involvement in a shoot-
ing in New York City in 1979. 
Interviews with interroga-
tor Rya Goodwin (Amanda 
Seyfried) reveal his “myster-
ies.”
Emmy Rossum, 35, 
co-stars as Danny’s mother. 
Rossum is best known for 
her starring role as Fiona 
Gallagher in the Showtime 
series Shameless (2011-
2021). Last summer, she 
starred as the title character 
in Angelyne, a (still available) 
five-episode Peacock series. 
This show about an enigmatic 
blonde bombshell got quite 
good reviews, but kind of 
“flew under the radar.” 
British Jewish actor Jason 
Issacs, 59, plays Jack Lamb, 
a friend of Danny’s biological 
father, and Lior Raz, 51, plays 
Yitzhak Safdie, Danny’s land-
lord. He becomes an import-
ant figure in Danny’s life. 
Raz, a retired elite Israeli 

commando, was Arnold 
Schwarzenegger’s bodyguard 
for a few years in the ’90s. 
He lives in Israel with his wife 
and children. 
 The Tony Awards will be 
broadcast (CBS) on Sunday, 
June 11, at 8 p.m. This year’s 
awards will stand out in your 
memory if the best play nom-
inee Leopoldstadt wins the 
best new play Tony (it’s the 
heavy favorite) and goes on 
to be turned into a top-notch 
streaming series.
I am getting ahead of 
myself. Leopoldstat follows 
an (extended) upper-class 
Austrian Jewish family from 
1899 to 1955. The main 
scenes are set in 1899, 1924, 
1938 (right after the Nazi 
takeover) and in 1955. About 
35 family members are in the 
three first scenes. The last 
scene features the three fam-
ily members who survived the 
Holocaust. 

 Leopoldstat is “one of a 
kind” — while the play has 
some humor, an expensive 
play (35 actors!) that address-
es grim topics like antisem-
itism, Jewish assimilation 
and the Holocaust, it is not 
likely to be mounted again 
in London and on Broadway. 
Leopoldstadt got staged 
because its playwright, Sir 
Tom Stoppard, 85, is univer-
sally viewed as the best living 
English playwright — and 
his Leopoldstadt script is as 
good as any he’s ever written.
Stoppard didn’t find out 

that his parents were Jewish 
until the early 1990s. His 
parents were non-obser-
vant Czech Jews. His father, 
Eugen Sträussler, a com-
pany doctor, was sent to 
Singapore by his company 
when the Nazis took over 
(1938) Czechoslovakia. He 
was accompanied by his wife, 
Martha, and his toddler sons, 
Tom and Peter. Martha and 
her two sons fled to India 
when Japan entered (1941) 
the war. Eugen stayed on 
to help the British army and 
was killed. In India, Martha 
met a non-Jewish British offi-
cer. She married him and he 
adopted her sons. He raised 
them in the U.K. as “proper 
Englishmen.” 
 Martha kept the secret of 
her Jewish background from 
Tom for her entire life. He 
had suspicions and asked 
some questions, but Martha 
would never open up. In the 
early 1990s, after the fall of 
the Berlin Wall, some Czech 
Jewish cousins could finally 
contact their famous play-
wright cousin. One cousin 
showed him photos of Martha 
with her Jewish relatives. He 
learned all four of his grand-
parents died in the camps. 
In recent interviews, 
Stoppard said that he was 
partially at fault for not learn-
ing his origins before he did. 
He added that a character 
in the 1955 segment of his 
play — a character who 
didn’t know anything about 
his Jewish family’s fate — is 
somewhat based on him.
The big news is that there 
is a strong possibility that 
Leopoldstadt will become 
a limited streaming series. 
Steven Spielberg, 75, will 
produce, and Patrick Marber, 
58, is rumored to be set as 
the director. He directed the 
London and Broadway stage 
versions and is nominated for 
the best director Tony. 

 If a series is made, it 
should be something really 
special and millions will see 
Leopoldstadt. The writer’s 
strike is making everything 
uncertain now. 
 Here are the other Jewish 
Tony nominees: Best New 
Musical: New York, New York 
(music by John Kander, 96) 
and Some Like it Hot (music 
by Marc Shaiman, 63 (Hot 
is a favorite to win); Best 
Musical Revival (all four nomi-
nated shows were written by 
Jews): Into the Woods and 
Sweeney Todd — songs by 
Steven Sondheim; Camelot, 
songs by Alan J. Lerner and 
Frederick Loewe; and Parade 
(about the lynching of Jewish 
businessman Leo Frank in 
1915). The songs are by Jason 
Robert Brown, 52; Lead 
Actress, Play: Jessica Hecht, 
57, Summer, 1976; Lead 
Actress, Musical: Micaela 
Diamond, 23, Parade. She 
plays Lucille, Leo Frank’s 
wife; Lead Actor, Musical: 
Ben Platt, 29, Parade. He 
plays Leo Frank; Featured 
Actor, Play: Brandon 
Uranowitz, 36, Leopoldstadt; 
Best Director, Play: Patrick 
Marber, Leopoldstadt; Best 
Original Score: Marc Shaiman, 
Some Like it Hot; and 
Jeanine Tesori, 61, Kimberly 
Akimbo. Shaiman and Tesori’s 
shows are “touted” as the 
favorites to win. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

CRISTIANO DEL RICCIODERIVATIVE

Emmy Rossum

MARK NEYMAN / GPO

Lior Raz

PHILIP ROMANO 

Sir Tom Stoppard

