• Clients
    • Curtain Call Playhouse
      • About Curtain Call Playhouse
    • Entr’Acte Theatrix
      • About Entr’Acte Theatrix
    • Jake Ehrenreich
      • About Jake Ehrenreich
      • Jewish Organization Support Programs with A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN 2.0
    • Paulette Dozier
      • About Paulette Dozier
    • Pigs Do Fly Productions
      • Pigs Do Fly Productions
    • Sol Children Theatre
      • About Sol Children Theatre
    • Steve Solomon
      • About Steve Solomon
    • The South Florida Theatre League
      • About The South Florida Theatre League
    • Thinking Cap Theatre
      • About Thinking Cap Theatre
  • Links
  • Join My Mailing List
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • About Broward Stage Door Theatre
  • About Evening Star Productions
  • Spanish River Concerts

Carol Kassie

~ Theatrical Marketing & Public Relations

Carol Kassie

Tag Archives: Jewish Theatre

Opening January 10: TO LIFE 2: MORE STORIES & MUSIC CELEBRATING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF JEWISH COMPOSERS TO THE GOLDEN AGE OF BROADWAY

23 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by Carol Kassie in Clients, Shari Upbin, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Amy Miller Brennan, Boca Raton Theatre, Hy Juter, Jeffrey Bruce, Jewish Broadway, Jewish Composers, Jewish Theatre, Mallory Newbrough, Michael McKenzie, Musical Theatre, Paul Reekie, Shari Ubbin, Sugar Sand Park, To Life 2: More Stories & Music Celebrating the Contributions of Jewish Composers to The Golden Age of Broadway, Wayne LeGette, WillowTheatre

Hy Juter
PresentsTo Life 2:  More Stories & Music Celebrating the Contributions of Jewish Composers to The Golden Age of Broadway
At the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park
January 10 – February 2, 2020

“My whole thing is not just to play music for people, but to make them part of the evening.”~ Marvin Hamlisch

“I guess I think of a musical as something in which the music is sort of like the engine of the piece – whether it is in the theatre or in film.” ~ John Kander

“A song must move the story ahead. A song must take the place of dialogue. If a song halts the show, pushes it back, stalls it, the audience won’t buy it; they’ll be unhappy.” ~ Dorothy Fields

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Carol Kassie
carol@carolkassie.com / 561-445-9244

December 23, 2019

BOCA RATON, FL:  A sold-out run in January 2019, and consistent “when will you do this again?” questions have led to the creation of To Life 2: More Stories & Music Celebrating the Contributions of Jewish Composers to the Golden Age of Broadway.  This second iteration of last year’s audience favorite will pick up where the previous show left off, with more songs, anecdotes, and stories, and will highlight the works of Marvin Hamlisch, Kander & Ebb, Dorothy Fields, George & Ira Gershwin, Jerry Herman, and many more. To Life 2 will run in the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park from January 10th through February 2nd.

Hy Juter (Jupiter Theater Company, LLC) will produce the show: “This is the first Willow Theatre production I have taken on myself since my partner Jerry Seltzer suddenly passed away this summer,” Juter says.  “We produced three wonderfully successful shows together (The Jazz Singer, Danny Kaye and Sylvia, and To Life) and we were working on To Life 2 literally until the day he died.   Jerry was a friend, a mensch, and one of the most decent people I have ever worked with, and we are dedicating this production to him.”

To Life 2: More Stories & Music Celebrating the Contributions of Jewish Composers to The Golden Age of Broadway will be performed by five of South Florida’s award-winning musical theatre artists:  Jeffrey Bruce, Wayne LeGette, Michael McKenzie, Amy Miller Brennan, and Mallory Newbrough.

Shari Upbin will once again helm the production, and Paul Reekie will be music director and pianist.

 

Shari Upbin

“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to direct Part 2 of To Life,” Upbin says. “These Jewish composers and stars of Broadway have shaped the form of Musical Theatre from the outset. Our audiences will be thrilled to hear South Florida’s best performing some of Broadway’s most popular songs live on stage.

“Jewish contribution to the Broadway musical has been phenomenal,” Upbin continues. “In fact, Jewish composers and lyricists created the Broadway musical. Children of immigrants, called outsiders – people who struggled for acceptance in mainstream society – created the greatest American shows in history. Show Boat, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsy… and scores (pun intended!) more!”

To Life 2: More Stories & Music Celebrating the Contributions of Jewish Composers to The Golden Age of Broadway was once again created and written by Scott Siegel.  Siegel is a well-known pop culture critic who covers film, theatre, and cabaret with his wife, Barbara, writing “The Siegel Column” for TheatreMania.com, and “The Two of Clubs” column for Talkin’Broadway.com. He has created more than 400 major concerts that have been performed worldwide, written/produced/directed concerts for Michael Feinstein, and has created scores of nightclub acts that have played at major clubs around the globe. He is well known for being the creator/writer/director/host of New York City’s Town Hall Theatre’s signature series, Broadway by the Year® and Broadway Unplugged.

To Life 2 will run from January 10 through February 2 at the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park.  Tickets are $40; group rates (6 or more tickets purchased in one transaction) are $35.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.sugarsandpark.org/life-2  or by phone at 561-347-3948.  The Willow Theatre is located at 300 South Military Trail, in Boca Raton’s Sugar Sand Park (33486).

For more information about To Life 2: More Stories & Music Celebrating the Contributions of Jewish Composers to The Golden Age of Broadway please contact Carol Kassie at carol@carolkassie.com / 561-445-9244.

~

Hy Juter (Jupiter Theater Company, LLC) presents
To Life 2:  More Stories & Music Celebrating the
Contributions of Jewish Composers to The Golden Age of Broadway
January 10 – February 2, 2020
Created and Written by Scott Siegel
Directed by Shari Upbin
Tickets: $40 / $35 for groups of 6 or more
For tickets:  561-347-3948 or https://sugarsandpark.org/life-2
Showtimes:
Friday & Saturday at 8 pm
Wednesday, Saturday, & Sunday at 2 pm
All performances take place in
The Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park
300 South Military Trail,
Boca Raton, FL 33486
https://sugarsandpark.org/life-2

About The Willow Theatre:
The Willow Theatre, opened in 1998, is a beautiful 155-seat proscenium theater, located inside Sugar Sand Park Community Center and allows for a unique experience for theatre patrons. Before or after a show, you may wander the nature trails, visit the Children’s Science Explorium, look at the art exhibit on display, or picnic at one of our pavilions.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

James Sherman’s FROM DOOR TO DOOR is the Premiere Production of the Theatre Arts Series at B’nai Torah & Producer/Director Shari Upbin

22 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Carol Kassie in Clients, The Theatre Arts Series at B'nai Torah

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

B'nai Torah, Boca Raton Theatre, comedy, Congregation B'nai Torah, From Door to Door, James Sherman, Jewish Theatre, Shari Upbin, The Theatre Arts Series at B'nai Torah

The Theatre Arts Series at B’nai Torah
& Shari Upbin
present

archives_doortodoor
From Door to Door
January 18th

 

When a woman reflects on her past as a daughter, a wife, and a mother,
who does she see?

December 22, 2014
BOCA RATON, FL: The B’nai Torah Theatre Arts Series and producer/director Shari Upbin will bring James Sherman’s gentle comedy From Door to Door to the B’nai Torah stage for one performance only on January 18th 2015.   A heartfelt tribute to American women of three generations, From Door to Door explores the influence culture and religion have in shaping life options.

Even as Mary Goodman, a woman of the ‘greatest generation’ is mourning the loss of her husband, her daughter Deborah is encouraging her to end her period of mourning and move on with a new independence. In a series of scenes between Mary, Deborah, and Mary’s mother, Bessie, Mary reflects back on her life as a daughter, wife and mother. Three actresses play the three women over the course of sixty-five years, and as we see Mary’s life progress from childhood to matrimony to motherhood, we begin to understand how each successive generation of women lives up to the expectations of the past and makes brave new choices about the future.

From Door to Door resonates deeply for producer/director Shari Upbin:“In May of 2010 my mother, who was almost 100 years old, passed away,” she explains. “There are so many things I still want to share with her on a daily basis, and one of them is that I’m directing this play where she is quoted in almost every scene! I was at one time, the young one in the cycle of three generations of mothers, and now with my mother and grandmother gone, there are my daughters and their daughters and I have come to wonderful terms with the idea that I am now the grandmother!”

Playwright James Sherman, who has penned a number of hit plays including Beau Jest, God of Isaac, Half and Half, and Jacob and Jack, has also acknowledged the play is deeply personal: “There’s no secret this play is inspired by my mother,” he has said. “I think all plays are autobiographical, the more I think about it. Edward Albee wrote Three Tall Women and those women were New England upper-class, like his family was. The women in my play are Jewish in Chicago because that’s where I was from.”

“But it also must be said that although the three characters are Jewish, this is indeed a most universal story,” Shari Upbin explains. “The sorrows, the laughter, the judgments and resolve are characteristic of women all over the world. We have a story to tell and our children must remember our stories.”

Actresses Renee Rogoff, Phyllis Spear, and Peggy Linker will take on the roles of Bessie, Mary, and Deborah.

Peggy Linker
Renee Rogoff
Phyllis Spear

From Door to Door is the first in the Theatre Arts Series at B’nai Torah. Carol Fox Prescott’s In the Voice of our Mothers will be presented on February 15, 2015. That production, co-produced by Shari Upbin and GFour Productions, will be directed by the playwright,

From Door to Door will run for one performance, only – on January 18th, 2015, at 1 pm – at Congregation B’nai Torah in Boca Raton. Tickets are $36 ($25 for congregational members), and may be purchased by calling 561-392-8566 or on line at www.bnai-torah.org. Group rates are available.

For more information about From Door to Door, or Shari Upbin, please contact Carol Kassie at ckassie@gmail.com / 561-445-9244.

The Premiere Theatre Arts Series at B’nai Torah
& Shari Upbin present
From Door to Door

By: James Sherman
Directed by Shari Upbin
Sunday, January 18th at 1 pm
Tickets: $36 ($25 for congregational members)
Phone: 561-392-8566 / http://www.bnai-torah.org/theaterseries2015
B’nai Torah Congregation
6261 SW 18th Street
Boca Raton, FL 33433
www.bnai-torah.org

Shari Upbin:
Shari2
Shari Upbin (Producer/Director) has been a theatre professional since the age of 13 when she became a member of Actors Equity. (Her father was a writer for Jack Benny). She has been a professional tap dancer and choreographer and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers; she was the president of the League of Professional Theatre Women/New York for seven years, and is currently President of the South Florida chapter of the National Society Of Arts And Letters.
Shari has produced and directed over 50 productions in New York and around the country. Her directing Credits include Vincent, The Passions Of The Artist Van Gogh, Danny And Sylvia at the Forum Theatre in New Jersey. Other credits include Life With Father, Fiddler On The Roof, Cabaret, Jacques Brel, The Roar Of The Greasepaint; she was awarded Best Director for her production of Side By Side By Sondheim..
Florida credits include Broadway Live! and Hollywood Live!, Confessions Of A Jewish Shiksa Dancing On Hitler’s Grave at the Kravis Center, Dames In Divaland, and Womens Minyan by Naomi Regan.
Shari served as assistant director to the world renowned British Director Michael Langham for the first Black/Hispanic Julius Caesar and Coriolanus at the New York Shakespeare Festival with Joe Papp starring Morgan Freeman.
Shari Upbin and Sandi Durell have been long time producing partners in Hollywood Live! and Broadway Live! as well as the Manhattan Association of Cabaret Award nominated Timeless Divas! series with hosts Ben Verreen, Tony Randall, Karen Mason, Tovah Feldshuh , Phyllis Newman, and Leslie Uggams.

James Sherman:
ShermanJames Sherman (Playwright) is the aut​hor of the plays Magic Time, The God of Isaac, Mr. 80%, The Escape Artist, Beau Jest, This Old Man Came Rolling Home, Jest A Second!, Romance in D, From Door to Door, The Old Man’s Friend,  Affluenza!, Half and Half, Relatively Close, and Jacob and Jack.  Many of these plays are regularly produced by theatres throughout the United States and have also been seen in Canada, Mexico, South America, England, Germany, Austria, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, China, and Korea.
James currently teaches Playwriting and Improvisation at Columbia College of Chicago and The Theatre School at DePaul University.  He has been a teacher of playwriting and acting on the faculties of The Second City Training Center, Chicago Dramatists Workshop, and Victory Gardens Theater. He was a visiting professor for the Spring ’01 semester in Seoul, South Korea, at the Korean National University of the Arts.  He has led workshops in improvisation at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
James Sherman has been the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo.  He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

Congregation B’nai Torah is the largest conservative synagogue in South Palm Beach County and has a long and history of being the premier destination for a meaningful Jewish community made rich through prayer, education and social programming.

​​​ Critical Praise for From Door to Door:

“Hilarious and deeply moving” – New York Daily News

“A bittersweet comedy about the blessings and compromises that three generations of women encounter in their pursuit of love, faith and marriage.” – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Because Sherman has all the details right, they hit home hard, and they touch us with their gentle, tried and true sentiment.” – Chicago Tribune

“Sherman’s women are Jews, but their trial and trails are universal.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Recent Tweets

  • MNM Theatre Company’s Innovative Virtual Production of CLOSER THAN EVER Extended Through January 10th,@2021 carolkassie.com/2020/12/22/mnm… 2 months ago
  • MNM Theatre Company's 'Closer Than Ever' starts streaming on November 27th! youtube.com/watch?v=X6iC4w… 3 months ago
  • MNM Theatre Company to Stream Maltby & Shire’s CLOSER THAN EVER On Demand – November 27 – December 31 carolkassie.com/2020/11/09/mnm… 3 months ago
  • @MichaelPaulson You can read about it here: mnmtheatre.org 3 months ago
  • @MichaelPaulson How can I contact you re an innovative COVID theatre production - I would like to send you a press release. Thanks! 3 months ago
Follow @ckassie

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×