Ed Asner To Star In THE SOAP MYTH National Tour

Beginning Monday, April 15, 2019 and continuing through Tuesday, May 7, seven-time Emmy Award and five-time Golden Globe Award winner Ed Asner will star as Holocaust survivor Milton Saltzman in a national tour of concert readings of Jeff Cohen's play The Soap Myth. The tour includes stops in Tampa, FL; Sarasota, FL; Wilmington, DE; Hartford, CT; Milwaukee, WI; Carmel, IN; St. Louis, MO; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; and Pittsburgh, PA. The readings are directed by Pam Berlin.

Alongside Mr. Asner, Two-time Emmy Award and four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh returns the dual roles of Holocaust scholar Esther Feinman and Holocaust denier Benda Goodsen from April 15 to April 24, following her performance in the roles in an East Coast tour earlier this year. Dee Pelletier, who originated the roles in the acclaimed 2012 production at the Roundabout Black Box, takes over for Ms. Feldshuh on April 29, through the conclusion of the tour on May 5. The cast of The Soap Myth also includes Drama Desk Award winner Ned Eisenberg in various roles and Liba Vaynberg as journalist Annie Blumberg.

The performances are part of Remembrance Readings - a tribute to Yom HaShoah, observed on May 1, 2019.

The play dramatizes the friendship that develops between a young Jewish journalist, Annie Blumberg, and a cantankerous Holocaust survivor, Milton Saltzman, on a crusade about including "soap" in Holocaust museums - Did the Nazis make soap from the corpses of murdered Jews? Along the way, the play grapples with the pernicious evil of antisemitism masquerading as Holocaust denial. The play tackles such timely and provocative themes as how a survivor survives surviving, who has the right to write history and how we determine the truth.

Mr. Cohen, commenting on recent tragic events in the Jewish community and the frightening rise of antisemitism, observes: "Holocaust education is more important than ever. I feel a renewed urgency to fight the tide of hatred using the weapons I possess - words and ideas."

Mr. Asner is beloved for such legendary roles as Lou Grant in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Lou Grant," Santa Claus in the Will Farrell-comedy Elf, and Carl Fredrickson in the smash animated feature Up. This marks the third year that he will perform the role of Holocaust survivor Milton Saltzman in The Soap Myth. Ms. Feldshuh, who is the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award and the Israel Peace Medal, is adored for her portrayal of such roles as Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony, the longest running one-woman play in Broadway history, and is widely known to television audiences for her recurring guest star roles on "The Walking Dead" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."

The Soap Myth was originally produced Off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theater in 2012 by the National Jewish Theater Foundation. A film of that production was broadcast nationally on PBS and is in the permanent collection of Britain's Digital Theatre.