The Ladies Who Lunch Theatre Presents They Changed Broadway

The Ladies Who Lunch Theatre (Michael & Barbara Ross) take pride in introducing you to THEY CHANGED BROADWAY, a new musical revue, for three performances only, June 8, 12 & 15, at The Excelsior Dinner Theatre in Manalapan, New Jersey.

Written by Michael Colby & featuring songs by Irving Berlin, George & Ira Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Jule Styne & many other composers & lyricists familiar to theatre-goers & music lovers alike, THEY CHANGED BROADWAY is the story of immigrants & children of immigrants, who brought feeling, sophistication & love for America to Broadway audiences, through their words & music. The show is directed by Sara Louise Lazarus, with musical direction by Seth Weinstein.

Featured in the cast of They Changed Broadway are Broadway veterans Gwen Hollander, Ben Rauch, Allen Lewis Rickman, Neva Small & Scott Sussman.

Gwen Hollander's stage credits include the Broadway/Tour of Little Women (Amy, Carbonell Award), National Tour of 101 Dalmatians, Les Miserables (Eponine, Carbonell Award), Avenue Q, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Urinetown, Great American Trailer Park Musical, Beauty & the Beast, Fiddler on the Roof & Tales of Tinseltown. On TV, she has appeared in "From Earth to the Moon" on HBO & Nickelodeon's "The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo." Ben Rauch has appeared in A Few Good Men, with Lou Diamond Phillips & Jensen Ackels; An Evening with Horace Vanderveer, Spring Awakening, Emeraldman, People Are Living There, Ludlow Ladd, Meester Amerika & Summer of '42, with Rachel York. On TV he has had roles on "Gossip Girl," "ED" & "Strangers with Candy." Allen Lewis Rickman played Velvel, the shtetl husband, in the Coen brothers' Oscar-nominated A Serious Man & translated the Coens' original English dialogue into Yiddish. His TV credits include Barry Levinson's Emmy-winning "You Don't Know Jack," with Al Pacino & John Goodman, a recurring role on HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," Michael Moore's The Awful Truth & "Law & Order." Stage work includes the New York premiere of So Help Me God!, Room Service (Cleveland Play House), Victor/Victoria (Paper Mill), Theda Bara & the Frontier Rabbi & and the Yiddish Pirates of Penzance, which he co-adapted, directed, wrote supertitle translations for & acted in, nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revival. Other Yiddish stage credits include work with Theodore Bikel, Fyvush Finkel, Mina Bern, Bruce Adler, Lillian Lux & the Joseph Papp Yiddish Theater. Neva Small has appeared on Broadway, television & film & is best known for her portrayal of Chava, Tevye's third daughter, in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof. As an educator, Neva takes great pleasure in her multi-media presentation, A Fiddler's Daughter, a behind the scenes look at the making of the iconic musical, tracing its history from its humble beginnings as a short story by Sholem Aleichem. Neva is currently appearing in Sam's Romance Off-Broadway. Scott Sussman starred as Tony in the world tour of West Side Story, in 26 cities including Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Amsterdam & the Olivier nominated run at Sadler's Wells in London. Scott was a fellow of the 2010 Eugene O'Neill Cabaret & Performance Conference & is a comedian in NYC's top Comedy Clubs. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in Family Guy Sings! at Carnegie Hall & Awesome 80's Prom. Regional credits include West Side Story, Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar, Ragtime, Joseph & A Little Night Music.

Writer Michael Colby was chief writer for the Drama Desk Award-winning New Amsterdam Theatre Company, & has penned events for The NY Festival of Song, the 92nd Street Y, the Directors' Company & Amas Musical Theatre. The personalities for whom Mr. Colby has written material include Linda Lavin, Sheldon Harnick, Tony Randall, Tovah Feldshuh, Paul Shaffer, Savion Glover, Susan Stroman, Michael Feinstein, Jack Gilford, Kristin Chenoweth, Lainie Kazan, Jane Powell & Cicely Tyson. He is the librettist &/or lyricist of the musicals Charlotte Sweet (Drama Desk Award nomination), North Atlantic (Show Business Award), The Human Heart (Billy Rose Foundation grant), Slay It with Music (opening in London this July), Tales of Tinseltown, Mrs. McThing, Ludlow Ladd, They Chose Me! & Meester Amerika (cited by The Star Ledger as "Best Original Score of the NJ Season). Recordings of his work include Charlotte Sweet & Quel Fromage.

The last time director Sara Louise Lazarus worked with Michael Colby was on Ludlow Ladd, which featured Kristen Chenoweth. Sara is an award-winning theatre & cabaret director, who has directed Tovah Feldshuh's one-woman Off-Broadway show, Tovah Out of Her Mind, the revival of Babes in Arms at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall & the world premiere of Terrence McNally's Plaisir D'Amour. She co-wrote & directed The 1959 Broadway Songbook for the Lyrics & Lyricists Series at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, then directed the off-Broadway version at 59E59, last year. She created & directed shows at Feinstein's at Loews Regency, Rainbow & Stars, The Russian Tea Room & Cabaret Comes to Carnegie. In New Jersey, she directed Private Lives & Starting Here, Starting Now at the Centenary Stage Company, the acclaimed revival of The Rink at Theatrefest & Curtains in Scotch Plains. For Paper Mill Playhouse, Sara co-directed the New Voices concerts, Thoroughly Modern Musicals & Paper Mill Goes Platinum & this summer will co-direct Pure Imagination. Sara lives in Millburn with her husband & son.

Musical Director Seth Weinstein wrote the music for the Off-Broadway musical How to Save the World & Find True Love in 90 Minutes in 2006, as well as "The Chagall Suite" (an eight-movement piano suite inspired by the painter's works) & a musical tribute to Chagall & Elvis Presley. His work has been performed in the USA, Germany & France & can be heard on his CD Conversations with Chagall. He toured with Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver, Fosse & Ivan Jacobs's The Phantom of the Opera. He will join baritone Adelmo Guidarelli in Operation Adelmo at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August.

Michael & Barbara Ross (The Ladies Who Lunch Theatre) are the award-winning producers of Jelly Roll, Piaf Remembered, We'll Meet Again, Mamaleh, Babalu-cy! & the tour of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, in addition to over a hundred regional theatrical productions. Their next project is a new version of the Rocky Horror Show.

DATES: Wednesday, June 8th & 15th @ noon, Sunday, June 12th @ 5pm
THEATRE: The Excelsior Dinner Theatre
Route 9 South, Manalapan, NJ
PRICE: $60 (Includes Gourmet Dinner & Unlimited Wine)
TICKETS: (732) 792-3285

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