Masha Leon
By Masha Leon
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The Schmooze ‘Still Jewish’: Avi Hoffman’s Yiddish-American Fest
“Still Jewish After All These Years — A Meshugene/Crazy Life in the Theatre” is really a misnomer for Avi Hoffman’s delicious one-man, two-hour bravura autobiographical recitative at Upper West Side’s Stage 72 (formerly the Triad), which delighted the audience. Spiffy in a well-tailored pin-stripe suit, and a blue silk tie with a Star of David…
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The Schmooze Meeting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on June 6, 1967 following his keynote address to several hundred American and foreign authors, publishers and booksellers at the American Booksellers Association’s (ABA—now renamed Book Expo) annual convention at Washington, D.C.’s Shoreham Hotel. Following the dinner, Dr. King, surrounded by security and members of his staff, graciously…
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The Schmooze Anat Cohen: Hot at 54 Below
Israel-born clarinetist assoluta Anat Cohen accompanied by the Choro Aventuroso ensemble — Victor Goncalves accordion, Cesar Garabini on a 7-string guitar and Serginho on the Pandeiro, a large tambourine producing sounds I’d never heard — dazzled the August 22 crowd at Broadway’s 54 Below Club. Cohen — voted “clarinetist of the year” seven years in…
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The Schmooze Shlomo Carlebach Really Was a ‘Soul Doctor’
“Soul Doctor” can best be described as “Hair” meets post Holocaust trauma with Eric Anderson’s visceral channeling of Reb Shlomo Carlebach and Amber Imam’s portrayal of Nina Simone illuminating the production. The 700 opening-nighters at the August 15 performance of “Soul Doctor” at Circle in the Square included philanthropist and Birthright founder Michael Steinhardt (who…
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The Schmooze The ‘Rabbi of Rumba’ Still Playing at 98
What do Michael Feinstein, Mayor Bloomberg, Angela Lansbury, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, and Barbara Walters, have in common? They were among the roster of [mailed-in] well-wishers joining the crush of notables and friends helping celebrate songwriter-pianist Irving Fields’s 98th birthday on August 1 at Nino’s Tuscany Steakhouse on West 58th Street where, for the past…
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The Schmooze David Hyde Pierce in Broadway Kvetch-fest
It was the arrival of the amazing Julie White in the role of Masha in Christopher Durang’s roarathon take-off on Chekhovian angst — “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” that got me to the Golden Theatre before its extended August 25 closing. What took me so long — since the character is my namesake…
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The Schmooze Rita Cosby Shows How Ladies Get Things Done
“It’s been crazier than ‘reality TV’…many of you have heard the name “Carlos Danger”…it’s nice to be here and back to sanity,” said keynote speaker TV news personality Rita Cosby to the 700 guests at the April 1 St. Francis Food Pantries and Shelters’ “Women of Valor Tea” at the Waldorf-Astoria. Emceed by Fox News…
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The Schmooze Sid Caesar Shines in ‘When Comedy Went to School’
Watching Sid Caesar’s side-splitting, insanely funny linguistic gymnastics in the documentary “When Comedy Went to School,” reminded me of the December 11, 2000 gala at The Pierre at which Caesar was honored with the National Foundation for Jewish Culture’s “Alan King Award in American Jewish Humor” which was presented to him by Mel Brooks [who…
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