The Winners of the Bat Yam Festival of Musicals Were Announced

"Budapest Boats" has won the Best Musical Award as well as a grant prize of 50,000 ILS courtesy of the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport. The musical, starring Dana Frider, Rona-Lee Shim'on and Rami Baruch, will celebrate its win on Wednesday, Dec. 21, with two performances at the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv.

The additional festival winners were Rami Baruch for Best Actor, Nasreen Qadri for Best Actress, Rona-Lee Shim'on received the Citation Award and Raphael Weinstock received the Excellence Award.

The winners of the Bat Yam Festival of Musicals, throughout which three original musicals that were created especially for the festival premiered last week, were announced today. In a festive ceremony that took place at the city's cultural center the first place award was presented to the musical "Budapest Boats", written by Roee Cohen, Nir Faivel and Assaf Shlomo, and directed by Lechay Bekerman.

The musical which stars Dana Frider, Rona-Lee Shim'on, Rami Baruch and Erez Regev received a grant prize of 50,000 ILS courtesy of the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport and will celebrate its win with two performances that will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 21 at the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv.

Mayor Yossi Bachar: "The Festival of Musicals is the crown all culture events in Bat Yam and is a mark of creating original culture for the entire country".

The festival's founder and artistic manager, Uri Paster: "The fourth Festival of Musicals succeeded to bring to life original musicals that have a bold theatre language which brings hope for further innovative creation".

The voting members included: musician Kobi Oshrat, songwriter Avi Koren, actor Dov Reiser, playwright Motti Lerner, journalist Ronit Vardi and directors Ron Ninio, Shirit Lee Weiss and Yair Sherman.

The winners:

Best Musical- "Budapest Boats". Written by Roee Cohen, Nir Faivel and Assaf Shlomo, directed by Lechay Bekerman, starring Dana Frider, Rona-Lee Shim'on and Rami Baruch.

Best Actor- Rami Baruch, "Budapest Boats", for "a fascinating performance and singular singing".

Best Actress- Nasreen Qadri, "Soulika", for "a surprising performance that combines acting and singing in the most perfect way".

Best Music- composer Maor Sabag, "Soulika".

Best Book- Tair Sibony, "Soulika".

Excellence Award- actor Raphael Weinstock, "The House of Mitzvahs", for "exceptional vocal range and song presentation".

Citation Award- Rona-Lee Shim'on, "Budapest Boats", for "a magnetizing presence and a moving and empathic acting and singing".

The winning musical "Budapest Boats" will celebrate its win on Wednesday, Dec. 21, with two festive performances at the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv.

The competing musicals at the 2016 "Bat Yam Festival of Musicals" were:

"Budapest Boats", starring Dana Frider, Rona-Lee Shim'on, Rami Baruch, Erez Regev, Ziv Zohar Meir, Lior Zohar and Refael Abbas.

An original musical by Roee Cohen, Nir Faivel and Assaf Shlomo, directed by Lechay Bekerman.

The musical takes place in the year 1940 in a labor camp on the Hungarian border. A relationship between the Hungarian camp's commander and a Jew, a former boats maker, leads to a painful encounter with both their past and future.

"The House of Mitzvahs", starring Raphael Weinstock, Efrat Cohen, Dar Rosenbaum, Ziv Shalit and Ben Yosipovich.

An original musical by Yasmin Even and Ido Setter, directed by Amir I. Wolf. A loose adaptation of the play "The God of Vengeance" by Shalom Ash which describes the story of a sinful Jew, an owner of a fancy brothel, who simultaneously tries to keep his only daughter's purity and to find her an adequate matching.
Shalom Ash spent his last years in Bat Yam and his renovated house will reopen for tours on the musical's opening night.

"Soulika", starring Nasreen Qadri, Ofir Ben Shitrit, Adi Zorea, Gil Cohen, Esti Asraf and Yakir Eliahu Vaknin.

An original musical by Maor Sabag and Tair Sibony, directed by Eli Kaplan-Wildmann.

A story about an Israeli tourist group's journey from the year 2016 to 1834 following the real and multi-version story about the young Jewish girl from Tangier who was forced to fight for her principles, faith and honor actually during the rich days of the Jewish-Arab coexistence in Morocco.

Photo Credit: Ariel Bashor.