Tovah Feldshuh To Host THE BROADWAY BEAUTY PEAGENT 4/19

Four-time Tony nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning actress Tovah Feldshuh has been announced to return as the host of The Broadway Beauty Pageant, Broadway's forth annual beauty contest, set for Monday evening, April 19th, 8p.m., at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.). The popular event is the annual benefit of New York's Ali Forney Center. This will be the third year that Ms. Feldshuh has been asked to host the popular event.

The Broadway Beauty Pageant, will feature male cast members representing their respective Broadway shows, competing for the title crown through talent, interview and swimsuit competitions. The contestants will go head to head in front of a panel of celebrity judges, but ultimately, the final vote is in the audience's hands.

The Broadway Beauty Pageant is conceived by Jeffery Self and directed by Ryan J. Davis, with casting by Daryl Eisenberg. The evening is produced by Ryan J. Davis, Jeffrey Self and Wil Fisher in association with Tim Hur.

The Ali Forney Center (AFC) was started in June 2002 in response to the lack of safe shelter for LGBT youth in New York City. They have grown quickly to become the nation's largest and most comprehensive organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth. They are committed to providing LGBT youth with safe, dignified, nurturing environments where their needs can be met and where they can begin to put their lives back together. The center provides short and long term housing in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, plus free medical care, HIV testing, mental health services, showers, food, computer access and job training and placement at its drop-in centers in Chelsea and Brooklyn.

Tickets for The Broadway Beauty Pageant are available at SymphonySpace.org and are $25, $50 and VIP $150. Individual Sponsored tickets range from $250 to $1000. For more information please visit www.aliforneycenter.org/beauty

Tovah Feldshuh most recently starred on Broadway as real-life World War II heroine Irena Gut Opdyke in Irena's Vow. For her work on the New York stage, from Yentl to Golda's Balcony, Tovah Feldshuh has earned four Tony nominations for Best Actress and won four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Obie, the Theatre World Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress. With Ms. Feldshuh, Golda's Balcony became the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history. She went on to play London's West End and continues to perform it around the world. Other Broadway credits include Cyrano (debut), Rodgers and Hart, Dreyfus In Rehearsal, Saravá and Lend Me a Tenor. Ms. Feldshuh portrayed the title roles in Roundabout Theatre's She Stoops To Conquer, Mistress Of The Inn and BAM's Three Sisters. Off Broadway, she starred as Tallulah Bankhead in her own Tallulah Hallelujah!, Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop, Jean Brodie in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Sarah Bernhardt, Stella Adler, Sophie Tucker, Katharine Hepburn, three queens of Henry VIII and nine Jews from birth to death in Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (Drama Desk Nomination). Her film credits include Kissing Jessica Stein, (Golden Satellite Award Best Supporting Actress), A Walk On The Moon, Happy Accidents, The Corrupter, Daniel, The Idolmaker, Brewster's Millions, Cheaper to Keep Her, Three Little Wolfs, Friends and Family, Old Love, Nunzio, The Believer and Toll Booth (winner, Best Supporting Actress - Method Fest 2005). Most recently, she appeared in Lady in the Water opposite Paul Giamatti and Just My Luck with Lindsay Lohan. Films to be released: Mount of Olives with F. Murray Abraham, O Jerusalem with Sir Ian Holm, in which she plays Golda Meir, Love Life, Baker, Eavesdrop, Buddy Gilbert Comes Alive and Ten Stories Tall. Her first Emmy nomination came for her portrayal of Helena the Czech freedom fighter in NBC's "Holocaust" and her second for her work on "Law & Order" as defense attorney Danielle Melnick. Tovah: Out Of Her Mind!, Ms. Feldshuh's one woman show, sold out in London's West End and was selected by the Boston Globe as the best one-person show of the year. Mining Golda: My Journey to Golda Meir, her second concert, has played worldwide. At San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, where she won two Drama-Logue Awards and was named Associate Artist, she served as leading lady for director Jack O'Brien in Romeo and Juliet, Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Measure For Measure, The Country Wife and Tovah: A Rush Hour Revue. Ms. Feldshuh, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, won the McKnight Fellowship in acting to the Guthrie Theater. She has taught at Yale, Cornell and New York Universities and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in June 2005. She supports Seeds Of Peace, a non-profit, non-political organization that helps teenagers from regions of conflict. She is the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitas Award and the Israel Peace Medal. Ms. Feldshuh is married to New York attorney, Andrew Harris Levy. They have two children, Garson Brandon and Amanda Claire.

Photo credit: Peter James Zielinski