Tovah Feldshuh Discusses New Memoir On THEATER: ALL THE MOVING PARTS This Friday

TONY-nominated actor Tovah Feldshuh discusses her new memoir with host Patrick Pacheco on this episode of "THEATER: All the Moving Parts", premiering Friday, April 16 at 9:30PM on CUNY TV and streaming at THEATER: All the Moving Parts starting April 19.

Tovah Feldshuh's memoir "Lilyville: Mother, Daughter and Other Roles I've Played" focuses on her main role as Lily Feldshuh's daughter and how that affected her life and her acting career. Lily was a force of nature, with a wicked sense of humor. She told her daughter that she rated the parts Tovah played by looks. "Dolly is a 10, Golda Meir is a ZERO." As a headstrong and free-spirited woman, Tovah was torn between living a life on her own terms and a need to gain approval from her mother. That tension played a role in her fifty years in show business, as she recalls lively stories that include Uta Hagen, Garson Kanin, Ruth Gordon, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Barbra Streisand. A stellar performance in "Yentl," put her on the map, and she earned more plaudits as Golda Meir and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others. "These people were amazing human beings. I got to imbibe their knowledge, imbue it inside myself and give it back to the audience." Ditto for her Shakespearean roles but only after director Jack O'Brien redeemed the brutal criticism she received from Michael Langham, the artistic director of the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre.

Patrick Pacheco says, "Tovah is a great story teller; funny, sharp, smart and a superb mimic. A good example is her imitation of Isaac Bashevis Singer bemoaning the fact that he gave Streisand the rights to his story, 'Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy'. Most impressive, however, is her clear-eyed view of how love of family trumps fierce ambition and how, ultimately, one must forgive the parental sins of the past."

"THEATER: All the Moving Parts" is a CUNY-TV show, featuring in-depth interviews with top theater artists, including playwright Theresa Rebeck, musical director Casey Nicholaw, intimacy director Claire Warden and set designer David Gallo. Of Pacheco, Rebeck said, "I felt like I was being interviewed by someone who knows me better than I know myself." Go to THEATER: All the Moving Parts to see these and other episodes.

Patrick Pacheco is an Emmy-winning commentator and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire.com, and many other periodicals. He wrote the 2009 Disney documentary "Waking Sleeping Beauty," and is the co-writer, with Maria Cassi, of the play, "My Life with Men...and other animals." He is the writer and editor of the Amazon best seller "American Theatre Wing, An Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles."

Tovah Feldshuh is a 4-time Tony and 2-time Emmy nominated actress known for her starring roles as: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony (the longest-running one-person-show in Broadway history); Irena Gut in Irena's Vow; the title role in Yentl; her performances in Broadway productions like Cyrano, Lend Me a Tenor, Pippin, and many others; and her television roles as Helena Slomova in the internationally acclaimed mini-series, Holocaust, as hypercritical mom Naomi in Rachel Bloom's smash hit Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Deanna Monroe on AMC's The Walking Dead.

STREAMING on THEATER: All the Moving Parts starts Monday, April 19.

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