Powerhouse Broadway veteran Tovah Feldshuh stars in Gypsy at Bristol Riverside Theatre as part of its 25th Anniversary Season on December 6-January 15. With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents, the production is directed by Keith Baker and also features Robert Newman, Amanda Rose, Brittney Lee Hamilton, Joe Grandy, Bethe B. Austin, Kathryn Kendall, and Demetria Joyce Bailey.
Previews begin Tuesday, December 6 with opening night on Thursday, December 8. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday until January 15. Tickets start at $40, with discounts for students and groups. Tickets are available visiting brtstage.org or calling the BRT Box Office at 215-785-0100. Bristol Riverside Theatre is located at 120 Radcliffe Street in Bristol, PA.
Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business mother." Following the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage, the musical contains many popular standards, including "Small World," "Everything's Coming up Roses", "Some People", "Let Me Entertain You", and "Rose's Turn".
Keith Baker (director) has directed more than 40 productions for BRT including Chicago (nominated for six Barrymore Awards), The Balkan Women (winner of a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play), The Dresser (nominated for a Barrymore Award for Best Director of a Play) and Dear World (nominated for three Barrymore Awards). As an actor he opened BRT's 25th Anniversary season with Barrymore and also appeared in productions of Old Wicked Songs, Defiance, Proof, Hamlet, A Little Night Music, Arsenic and Old Lace, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Baker has been nominated eleven times for the prestigious Carbonell Awards, for which he was twice the recipient for Best Actor. Prior to coming to BRT, Baker was Artistic Director for the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival and the Florida Repertory Theatre.
Tovah Feldshuh (Mama Rose) has received four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, the OBIE, the Theater World Awards and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress. She has received Tony nominations for Golda's Balcony, Yentl, Sarava! and Lend Me A Tenor. Following her Broadway run of Golda's Balcony, which was the longest running one-woman show in Broadway history, she toured the production in London, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Her one-woman show Talullah Hallelujah! was chosen one of USA Today's 10 Best Plays of the Year. Feldshuh's television credits include a recurring role as Danielle Melnick on Law and Order and the NBC miniseries Holocaust, both of which earned her Emmy nominations. Her film credits include A Walk on the Moon and the critically acclaimed Kissing Jessica Stein for which she was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her cabaret show Tovah! Crossovah! From Broadway to Cabaret debuted at the Algonquin's Oak Room and her off-Broadway show Tovah: Out of Her Mind toured internationally. Her latest work, the concert Aging is Optional, opened at Yale this summer to rave reviews. A teacher at Yale, Cornell, and New York Universities with two honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters, she is a supporter of Seeds of Peace, a non-profit, non-political organization that helps teenagers from regions of conflict. Her charity work has been acknowledged with the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award and the Israel Peace Medal.
Robert Newman (Herbie) starred for nearly 18 years on The Guiding Light, earning two leading actor Emmy nominations. Other television credits include NCIS, Criminal Minds and Law & Order: SVU. Regionally he has been a frequent performer in leading roles at Barn Theatre (Man of La Mancha, Shenandoah, My Fair Lady and Carousel) as well as appearances at Paper Mill Playhouse, North Carolina Theatre, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and Algonquin Theatre.
Amanda Rose (Louise) starred in the first national tours of Wicked and Oklahoma and an appearance on Broadway in Dr. Dolittle. Her regional credits include several productions at Sacramento Music Circus (Les Miserables, Annie, and Jekyll & Hyde) as well as performances at Paper Mill Playhouse and Goodspeed Opera House.
