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Concentration Camp-inspired Play to Hit Broadway – Jewish Exponent
Steven Fisher’s play about the Holocaust, “The Last Boy,” enjoyed a successful off-Broadway run in July, playing to 80-person sold-out crowds.
Now, it’s going to Broadway…at least for one night.
On April 27, the start of Yom HaShoah, Fisher’s show will move from the off-Broadway Theatre at St. Clement’s to the Broadway Town Hall, which seats 1,500. The Philadelphia native and his actors are putting on a charity show to benefit Jewish organizations, including the National Museum of American Jewish History.
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“The Last Boy” is a one-act play inspired by the young boys in the Terezin concentration camp, who created a secret literary society and magazine, Vedem.
Fisher is not Jewish, but he was inspired to write the show after taking his youth choir on an educational trip to the site several years ago.
The Terezin survivor who preserved the Vedem archives, Sidney Taussig, gave Fisher his blessing to write the historical fiction. While Taussig couldn’t attend the play’s off-Broadway run, he will be present for its Broadway debut, as he promised he would be.
“I just want to see it on Broadway before time does to me what Hitler failed to do,” Taussig told Fisher when he gave his blessing.
“I’m not a particularly religious person, but I do feel there’s something in the universe that keeps moving this forward,” Fisher said.
Before it reaches Broadway, though, “The Last Boy” will return to its off-Broadway location. The play’s July success convinced the Theatre at St. Clement’s to bring it back for another run.
From Feb. 26 to March 13, the same young actors will perform their testament to the human spirit.
So far, “The Last Boy” has impressed Broadway producers, too, Fisher told the Exponent, and they helped organize the charity show on Broadway. And if the show continues to impress, it may end up with a real run on the biggest stage.
Even so, the Broadway development process can take “several years,” he said.
But one thing is for certain: The charity performance is a good sign.
“The folks who were moved by it and want to see it have a life,” Fisher said. “They feel this is a good way to raise awareness.”
The retired choir director is also doing his part to raise awareness about the April show, reaching out to synagogues and Jewish organizations both locally and in New York.
Congregation Beth Or in Ambler is sponsoring the performance and will be allocated 40 tickets to give away to congregants. Fisher said any synagogue can become a sponsor and get tickets. The show can serve as a Yom HaShoah event.
“I like to say remembering is how we never forget,” he said of the play and the Holocaust.
Visit thelastboy.info/ to buy tickets.
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