Author Archives: itsdlevy

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 11, 2012

Posted under

It's dlevy!

Comments

Leave a comment

It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s dlevy! My Wedding Toast

Originally published on It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s dlevy!

Yesterday, one of my oldest best friends, Benjamin, got married to one of my newer best friends,Stephanie, and it was awesome. I had the privilege of being the groom’s best man, so I was asked to toast the couple during the reception. Behind the cut, my toast, which is probably only interesting to people who know the couple.

However, since Benjamin and I initially met through blogging, it seems only right that I preserve my words here.

Continue reading →

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 7, 2012

Posted under

About Me, Jewish, JewishBoston.com, Keshet, lgbtq

Comments

Leave a comment

JewishBoston.com: What’s Jewish about Gay Pride?

Originally published on JewishBoston.com.

Last Shabbat, I was invited by Rav Claudia Kreiman to give the drash (sermon) at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline for the GLBTQ Pride Shabbat. She asked me to speak on the question of why gay pride is a Jewish concern. Here’s what I had to say:

Falsettos - Broadway PlaybillIn 1992, the summer before I started high school, I saw Falsettos on my second-ever trip to Broadway. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it was the combination of two earlier, ground-breaking off-Broadway musicals by songwriter William Finn: March of the Falsettos, which told the story of Marvin, a Jewish man in his forties who had left his wife and son for a male lover, but who wanted a “tight-knit family” that included all of them; and its sequel, Falsettoland, in which Marvin’s son struggles with becoming bar mitzvah while Marvin’s lover struggles with the disease that would come to be known AIDS.

I don’t know that there’s ever been another show — or ever will be — that spoke so directly to me. A large part of that is simply that it’s the first time I can remember seeing gay lives portrayed, well, anywhere. I didn’t know any gay adults, and while I had an inkling that some of my friends might also be gay, none of us had yet spoken the words out loud to each other.

I’m just young enough to have missed Billy Crystal on Soap, and Tom Hanks in Philadelphia was still a year away; Ellen wouldn’t come out for another five years. So in 1992, gay boys who loved Broadway musicals had Falsettos, lesbians had newly out of the closet country singer k. d. lang, and that was it. The gays of Falsettos were Jewish – and I don’t just mean Jew “ish” – the opening number of the show is called “Four Jews in a Room Bitching,” which really sets the tone for how the rest of the show unfolds… that these characters’ sexuality and domestic struggles were wrapped in the familiar neuroses of my community intensified the resonance. Continue reading →

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

May 19, 2012

Posted under

It's dlevy!, Theater

Comments

Leave a comment

It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s dlevy! On Theatrical Souvenirs

Originally published on It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s dlevy!

When I was little, my parents took me to see a lot of live theater. At first, our excursions were primarily to community theaters and semi-professional productions. When I was eight years old, they took me to my first “first-class” production, the first national tour of Big River. I was already familiar with the show from our cassette of the original cast recording, but I was so swept away by the magic of theater that I was hooked for life. Before long, that cassette was supplemented by a paperback copy of the script and the piano/vocal selections of the score. I loved the show so much, I wanted to own a piece of it, and this was how I did it.

Continue reading →

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

March 12, 2012

Posted under

Jewish, JewishBoston.com, Recipes

Comments

Leave a comment

JewishBoston.com: Deconstruct Your Passover: Matzo Ball Soup Kabobs

Originally published on JewishBoston.com.

created at: 2012-03-12

 

Have you heard about Pinterest? It’s a relatively new social sharing website that has captured the imagination of women in particular across the USA. With its emphasis on images, it’s particularly well-suited for sharing links fashion, decor, and food-related websites. Here at JewishBoston.com HQ, we’re obsessed. We’ve created our own set of Pinboards, including one just for Passover alongside the more common collections of crafts, recipes, and so on.

If you spend a little time on Pinterest, you’ll notice certain trends emerge. For example, people seem to be obsessed with food that looks like Lego. There’s never a shortage of LOLCats. And people seem to like to put food on sticks.

It was that last realization that caused me to cook up this little dish, Matzo Ball Soup Kabobs. Think of it this way – most people are way more excited about the matzo balls than any other part of the soup. Sure, we may eat a carrot or two, and if your family is so inclined as to include actual chunks of chicken, that’s a bonus. But who needs to fill up on broth when there’s a huge, delicious meal ahead? The kabobs sole the problem — and can be served with just a shot of broth to wash it all down.

If you prefer a more traditional take on soup, we have that recipe too. In fact, we have dozens of Passover recipes. If you need more than recipes to assist in your Passover prep, check out our whole Passover Guide. And if you’re in the Boston area and need a jump-start on hosting your own seder, definitely request your free Seder in a Box.

Finally, if you see things you like on our site — don’t forget to pin them on Pinterest!

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

March 9, 2012

Posted under

Jewish, JewishBoston.com

Comments

Leave a comment

JewishBoston.com: The Orange on the Seder Plate and Miriam’s Cup: Foregrounding Women at Your Seder

Originally posted on JewishBoston.com.

Just before we drink the second cup of wine in the Passover seder, we speak of three symbols considered indispensible to the holiday’s meaning: the shank bone, the matzah, and the bitter herbs. However, in many homes, other symbols are added to this section, from the egg (which sits on the seder place but has no formal mention in traditional Haggadahs) to olives (signs of peace) to oranges and cups of water.

Last year, we collaborated with Jewish Women’s Archive on a special edition of our Haggadah called “Including Women’s Voices.” Here’s the section I wrote for that Haggadah on the customs and significance of the orange and Miriam’s Cup.  Continue reading →

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

February 12, 2012

Posted under

It's dlevy!, Reviews, Theater

Comments

Leave a comment

It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s dlevy! Godspell

Originally published on It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s dlevy!

I was in New York City this weekend primarily to see Merrily We Roll Along at Encores. It turns out that my friend Sarah, who lives in Philadelphia, was also coming in for Merrily, so we decided to take in another show together.

There’s nothing I was particularly dying to see, but I’ve been curious about the Broadway revival of Godspell at Circle in the Square. Godspell is one of those scores I can listen to on repeat – I own at least five different recordings of it. But I’ve only ever seen a mostly-female summer camp production and the film. I wanted to direct a production of it in college for my Hillel drama club — no, really, I had both a great concept for it and a good reason for doing it at Hillel — but the program director of Hillel convinced me that there are enough people telling the Jesus story out there, maybe the Jewish organization that puts on two plays a year could pick something else…. So we did Children of Eden instead. But I digress… So despite my somewhat lukewarm reaction to the cast recording for the current production, I suggested we try our luck at the lottery for $32 “pillow seats.”

Okay, when I say “we” I really mean “she” because I was at dinner with a bevy of theater bloggers & tweeters while the lottery was taking place – and I was thrilled to get the text message saying we’d won!  Continue reading →

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

February 10, 2012

Posted under

Jewish, JewishBoston.com

Comments

Leave a comment

JewishBoston.com: The Internet Meme Haggadah?

Originally posted on JewishBoston.com.

While you may still be recovering from you Tu BiShvat hangovers, here at JewishBoston.com headquarters, we are deeply immersed in Passover planning. Amidst finalizing plans for a new round of Seders in a Box, arranging some great new themed supplements for your haggadah, and finding a new batch of tasty (and not too hard to make) recipes, we’re also thinking about new editions of the haggadah to offer you. Here’s one idea…

created at: 2012-02-10

created at: 2012-02-10

created at: 2012-02-10

created at: 2012-02-10

created at: 2012-02-10

We’ve got lots more Passover content to come in the next few weeks – keep your browser pointed at our Passover page for updates!

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 30, 2011

Posted under

Jewish, JewishBoston.com

Comments

Leave a comment

JewishBoston.com: Rushing To Give? Make Tzedakah a Year-Round Practice

Originally published on JewishBoston.com.

created at: 2011-12-30If your inbox is anything like mine, the last two weeks have been a deluge of messages from well-meaning organizations helpfully reminding us that 2011 is about to end, and with it our last opportunity to take advantage of tax-deductable donations for this fiscal year. Each organization has kindly offered to be the recipient of any money we might need to donate in order to meet the needs of our tax accounting. How sweet of them!

I don’t begrudge any organization their chance to make however many sincere asks for donations they feel are necessary. In fact, for the years that I was chair of the board of Keshet, I was often the one writing these messages. And yet, this year I haven’t made a single year-end donation. Continue reading →

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 5, 2011

Posted under

Jewish, JewishBoston.com, Reviews, Theater

Comments

Leave a comment

JewishBoston.com: Review: CAPTORS at the Huntington

Originally published on JewishBoston.com.

I will admit up front that I tend to approach “Holocaust art” with a bit of hesitation. The subject so readily lends itself to emotional manipulation, and it seems as though every possible angle has been addressed already. So I am pleased to report that Evan M. Wiener’s new play Captors, receiving its premiere at the Huntington Theatre through December 11 with an eye towards New York, was (if you’ll forgive the pun) captivating.  Continue reading →

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 17, 2011

Posted under

Fuck Yeah Stephen Sondheim, Music

Comments

Leave a comment

Fuck Yeah Stephen Sondheim: Don’t fucking download this album.

Originally published on Fuck Yeah Stephen Sondheim.

Asker ms872 Asks:
So I was just wondering if you had a download link for Follies. I can’t seem to find one. Thanks for making this awesome page, btw!! I love it!
fuckyeahstephensondheim fuckyeahstephensondheim Said:

This post might make me sound like a dick, but well, sometimes I am a dick. So let me start by saying thanks, I’m really glad you enjoy this page.

Now.

Don’t fucking download this album. Buy this album. There is no reason this album should exist. There are already too many other versions of Follies on the market. With a cast and orchestra this size, it had to have cost between $200,000 and $300,000 to produce, which means it is highly unlikely to recoup its costs in any reasonable amount of time, particularly given that the show is closing soon so there won’t be lobby sales.

If you want to illegally download an album that was produced twenty years ago, I’m not going to judge you so harshly. That’s already made its money. But this one isn’t even in stores yet.

The bottom line is that if you want albums like this to exist, you need to support them financially. That’s why I bought Follies directly from the label, so they’d get my full $16 (as opposed to the $6 or so they’d end up with after the store and distributor took a cut had I bought it through Amazon or a brick-and-mortar store). My $16 is a pledge to Tommy Krasker and the rest of PS Classics that I support the work they’re doing and want to see more of it. They are not a huge multinational corporation like Sony-BMG or Universal. Your $16 actually matters to them and will help determine whether they record more albums like this and, really, whether they continue to exist or not.

If you don’t have $16 to put towards the album right now — save up for it. We don’t all have to own everything the minute it becomes available.

If saving $16 for a leisure purchase still feels unobtainable to you — and it might, for perfectly good reasons — buddy up with your local librarian. If they don’t have the album, and you can’t get it through interlibrary loan? Most libraries have at least a small collection development budget. Tell them you’d like them to add this album to their collection.

Okay, I think that’s the end of this rant. It’s not really aimed at you, ms872. (Or may I call you Mark?) I don’t know you or anything about you. But the way cast albums — new cast albums, recorded by tiny companies on the verge of bankruptcy in tight economic times — are traded on Tumblr concerns me.