Bob Abelman covers theater and cultural arts for the Cleveland Jewish News. Follow Bob at Facebook.com/BobAbelman.3
Latest Column
Since the ban on mass gatherings due to COVID-19 started March 13, 2020, Cleveland’s Playhouse Square has canceled or postponed 680 performances and lost nearly $4 million in revenue. But with the roll-out of a vaccine, Playhouse Square president and CEO Gina Vernaci, who oversees its KeyBan…
Recent Headlines
“If by chance I talk a little wild, forgive me; I had it from my father.”
“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?”
“The wheel has come full circle.”
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.”
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
Working its way through Jewish film fests is an intriguing new documentary called “Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance” that offers an in-depth look at the often forgotten historic alliance between African Americans and Jewish Americans.
If you are in need of one last excuse to purchase that coveted 77-inch OLED TV with 4k resolution and 5.1 Dolby surround sound, invest in a fully-loaded laptop or upgrade your mobile phone, here it is: the 14th annual Mandel JCC Cleveland Jewish FilmFest, 2020 Virtual Edition.
The final installment of recorded-live theater favorites currently being offered on PBS’s Great Performances is the sumptuous 2015 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic 1951 musical “The King and I,” to be broadcast at 9 p.m. Aug. 21.
Amidst its recent offerings of recorded-live stage revivals of “She Loves Me,” “Present Laughter” and, coming at 9 p.m. Aug. 21, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” PBS’s “Great Performances” has scheduled a documentary about the making of a modern musical. “In the Heights: Chasing B…
While their musical “Fiddler on the Roof” was running on Broadway in 1964, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and composer Jerry Bock were creating another show about another Jewish family facing oppression. But while “Tevye’s people were resigned to their poverty, the Rothschilds were determined to c…
Thirty years ago, the Cleveland International Film Festival experienced a major turning point when its board voted to move its screenings from the east side’s Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights – where it had resided for the festival’s first 14 years – to downtown as part of the Clevelan…