Tovah Feldshuh to Host Broadway Beauty Pageant

The Broadway Beauty Pageant announced that the award-winning Tovah Feldshuh will be the host for this not-to-be-missed event on Monday, March 21st, 2011 at 8:00 PM, benefiting The Ali Forney Center, NYC's primary housing resource for homeless LGBT youth. The annual show will again be at the Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (at 95th Street).

This year’s contestants are: Matt Anctil, La Cage aux Folles; Michael Cusumano, Chicago; Raymond J. Lee, Anything Goes; Brandon Rubendall, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; and James Tabeek, Mary Poppins. Conceived by Jeffery Self and directed by Ryan J. Davis, The Broadway Beauty Pageant is musically directed by Christopher Denny. The evening is produced by Wil Fisher, Ryan J. Davis, Jeffery Self and Matthew Oberstein.

Tovah Feldshuh starred on Broadway in Irena’s Vow, for which she received the BroadwayWorld.com Theatre Fans’ Choice Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play. From Yentl to Saravà! to Lend Me A Tenor to Golda’s Balcony, she 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 (Golda’s Balcony which became the longest-running one-woman show in the history of Broadway. Other shows on Broadway include Cyrano (with Christopher Plummer), Rodgers and Hart and Dreyfus in Rehearsal. Feldshuh portrayed the title roles in the Roundabout Theatre’s She Stoops to Conquer and Mistress of the Inn, BAM’s Three Sisters with RoseMary Harris and Ellen Burstyn, and played in the long-running hit The Vagina Monologues. She also starred as the legendary Tallulah Bankhead in her own Tallulah Hallelujah!, which was chosen as one of the Ten Best Plays of the Year by USA Today. Among other roles, Ms. Feldshuh has portrayed 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 Off-Broadway’s Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh. She also played Ms. Hepburn Tea at Five. She most recently starred in the off-Broadway production of Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She has also appeared in many films and on television to great acclaim and honors as well as appeared in numerous shows around the world.

The trio of outstanding and hilarious judges for the 5th Smash Year of The Broadway Beauty Pageant are: Bruce Vilanch, the six-time Emmy Award winner comedy writer and actor who is one of the most sought after jokesmiths in the entertainment industry; Rachel Dratch, best known for her years as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, and who is an award winning comic actress from Second City; and Carson Kressley, who was the fashion expert on Queer Eye, the host of the TV show How To Look Good Naked, and now hosts Carson-Nation on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The previous winners have been: Charlie Williams (Mr. Memphis 2010), Anthony Hollock (Mr. Hair 2009), Marty Thomas (Mr. Xanadu 2008), and Frankie James Grande (Mr. Mamma Mia 2007).

Tickets are priced at $25, $50, and $150 VIP and are on sale online at http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/6590-the-5th-annual-broadway-beauty-pageant, via phone at (212) 864-5400 or in person at the box office. $150 VIP tickets include a gift bag and private after party. For sponsorship information please contact Wil Fisher at (212) 400-0282. The Event Website is http://aliforneycenter.org/beauty/ http://www.facebook.com/BroadwayBeautyPageant

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, 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. The Ali Forney Center is at 224 West 35th St., Suite 1102 New York, NY 10001 (212) 222-3427 and the fax is (212) 222-5861. www.aliforneycenter.org

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos