Tovah Feldshuh Headlines GYPSY at Bristol Riverside Theatre, 12/6-1/15

Powerhouse Broadway veteran Tovah Feldshuh stars in Gypsy at Bristol Riverside Theatre as part of its 25th Anniversary Season on December 6-January 15. With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents, the production is directed by Keith Baker and also features Robert Newman, Amanda Rose, Brittney Lee Hamilton, Joe Grandy, Bethe B. Austin, Kathryn Kendall, and Demetria Joyce Bailey.

Previews begin Tuesday, December 6 with opening night on Thursday, December 8. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday until January 15. Tickets start at $40, with discounts for students and groups. Tickets are available visiting brtstage.org or calling the BRT Box Office at 215-785-0100. Bristol Riverside Theatre is located at 120 Radcliffe Street in Bristol, PA.

Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business mother." Following the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage, the musical contains many popular standards, including "Small World," "Everything's Coming up Roses", "Some People", "Let Me Entertain You", and "Rose's Turn".

Keith Baker (director) has directed more than 40 productions for BRT including Chicago (nominated for six Barrymore Awards), The Balkan Women (winner of a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play), The Dresser (nominated for a Barrymore Award for Best Director of a Play) and Dear World (nominated for three Barrymore Awards). As an actor he opened BRT's 25th Anniversary season with Barrymore and also appeared in productions of Old Wicked Songs, Defiance, Proof, Hamlet, A Little Night Music, Arsenic and Old Lace, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Baker has been nominated eleven times for the prestigious Carbonell Awards, for which he was twice the recipient for Best Actor. Prior to coming to BRT, Baker was Artistic Director for the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival and the Florida Repertory Theatre.

Tovah Feldshuh (Mama Rose) has received four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, the OBIE, the Theater World Awards and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress. She has received Tony nominations for Golda's Balcony, Yentl, Sarava! and Lend Me A Tenor. Following her Broadway run of Golda's Balcony, which was the longest running one-woman show in Broadway history, she toured the production in London, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Her one-woman show Talullah Hallelujah! was chosen one of USA Today's 10 Best Plays of the Year. Feldshuh's television credits include a recurring role as Danielle Melnick on Law and Order and the NBC miniseries Holocaust, both of which earned her Emmy nominations. Her film credits include A Walk on the Moon and the critically acclaimed Kissing Jessica Stein for which she was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her cabaret show Tovah! Crossovah! From Broadway to Cabaret debuted at the Algonquin's Oak Room and her off-Broadway show Tovah: Out of Her Mind toured internationally. Her latest work, the concert Aging is Optional, opened at Yale this summer to rave reviews. A teacher at Yale, Cornell, and New York Universities with two honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters, she is a supporter of Seeds of Peace, a non-profit, non-political organization that helps teenagers from regions of conflict. Her charity work has been acknowledged with the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award and the Israel Peace Medal.

Robert Newman (Herbie) starred for nearly 18 years on The Guiding Light, earning two leading actor Emmy nominations. Other television credits include NCIS, Criminal Minds and Law & Order: SVU. Regionally he has been a frequent performer in leading roles at Barn Theatre (Man of La Mancha, Shenandoah, My Fair Lady and Carousel) as well as appearances at Paper Mill Playhouse, North Carolina Theatre, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and Algonquin Theatre.
Amanda Rose (Louise) starred in the first national tours of Wicked and Oklahoma and an appearance on Broadway in Dr. Dolittle. Her regional credits include several productions at Sacramento Music Circus (Les Miserables, Annie, and Jekyll & Hyde) as well as performances at Paper Mill Playhouse and Goodspeed Opera House.

Brittney Lee Hamilton (June) reprises the role she created at Ivoryton Playhouse. She has also been featured regionally at Eugene O'Neill Center, Goodspeed Opera House, and Seven Angels Theatre. She has also appeared in New York Musical Theatre Festival's production of Hurricane and Angels: The Musical.

Joe Grandy (Tulsa) has been a frequent guest at Goodspeed Opera House (My One and Only and 42nd Street), North Shore Music Theatre (A Chorus Line and Singing in the Rain) and St. Louis MUNY (Peter Pan and Grease) and Syracuse Stage (The Sound of Music and A Christmas Carol). He has also performed at the Edinburgh Festival and New York Musical Theatre Festival.
Bethe B. Austin (Tessie Tura) returns to BRT where she won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in Texas Flyer and was nominated for another Award for She Loves Me. On Broadway she has performed in Sly Fox, Onward Victoria, Raggedy Ann, and Noises Off which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble. Off-Broadway she has appeared at Second Stage and The Public Theater.

Kathryn Kendall (Mazeppa) has appeared in the national tours of Jerome Robbins' Broadway, 42nd Street with Jerry Orbach & Tammy Grimes, Shenandoah and Kiss Me Kate, both with John Raitt, and the 25th Anniversary tour of Nunsense with Sally Struthers. Regionally she has starred in the leading roles in Hello Dolly, Dirty Blonde, Urinetown, and Anything Goes, and worked with Jerry Herman on the Barrington Stage production of Mack and Mabel.

Demetria Joyce Bailey (Electra) has been a popular performer at BRT in the winter and summer musicals. She has been nominated for a Barrymore Award for Best Actress in a Musical in Ethel Waters and recently performed to sold out audiences at World Café Live in her jazz show Somebody Loves Me.

The production also features local child talents Wynnewood resident Gaby Bradbury, Ambler native Riley Kanter, and Ambler resident Claire O'Neill. Other cast members include Rachel Beiswenger, Breanna Pursell, Erika Strasburg and Paul Weagraff.

Gypsy brings together a creative team of set designer Nels Anderson, costume designer Tracy Christensen, and lighting designer Ryan O'Gara. Eric Barnes is musical director and Kathryn Kendall is choreographer.

The BRT mainstage season continues with the world premiere of A Raw Space by Jon Marans (January 31-February 19); Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling featuring an all-female cast of local favorites (March 20-April 8), and the mega-hit, award-winning musical Rent by Jonathan Larson (May 8-June 3).

Since 1986, BRT has brought consistently acclaimed professional theatre to Bucks County and maintained a long-term commitment to finding and developing new plays. The theatre is the recipient of over 66 Barrymore Award nominations for Excellence in Theatre, given annually by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. In addition to its mainstage productions, the theatre serves as a cultural hub for the community, with such programs as children's theatre, community concerts and exhibitions of local visual arts. Currently under the direction of Artistic Director Keith Baker, Founding Director Susan D. Atkinson, and Managing Director, Amy Kaissar, BRT enters its 25th anniversary season. For information, visit www.brtstage.org.

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