Starring in all three — A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Sunshine Boys and The Rise of David Levinsky — will be none other than Hoffman himself, who also serves as producing artistic director of The New Vista Theatre Company.
Forum, the bawdy musical comedy by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, is the inaugural production of the not-for-profit New Vista, Dec. 21-Jan. 7, 2007. Hoffman will play the lead, Pseudolus.
The troupe's home will be the 800-seat Park Vista Theatre on the campus of the Park Vista Community High School, 7900 Jog Road, in Boynton Beach, FL.
The theatre company was created because of the overwhelming response to Hoffman's recent production of Fiddler on the Roof in Boynton Beach.
Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (Feb. 8-18, 2007) will star Hoffman and Broadway's Bruce Adler. The South Florida premiere of the musical The Rise of David Levinsky (March 22-April, 2007) will feature Hoffman as the title character, "a man who arrives at Ellis Island, a poor, penniless orphan, and grows into the most successful garment manufacturer in America."
Hoffman originated the role of the younger David Levinsky in the show's Off-Broadway engagement in 1983. The musical is by Isaiah Sheffer and Bobby Paul, based on the popular novel by Abraham Cahan, the famed editor of the Jewish Forward.
Avi Hoffman is known for his PBS cultural specials and for such Off-Broadway shows as Too Jewish?, Songs of Paradise and Finkel's Follies.
Season subscriptions are available. For more information, visit www.newvistatheatre.org or call (888) 284-4633.
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Palm Beach County, Florida, is fertile territory for professional theatre. Its resident professional companies also include Caldwell Theatre Company, Palm Beach Dramaworks and Florida Stage, among others.
