Riverdale’s ONLY Locally Owned Newspaper!
Volume XX • Number 12 • March 21 - 27, 2013 •
FREE!
Stanton campaign in financial fizzle The Cliff Stanton for City Council campaign seems to be in a financial fizzle. While the censorship-supporting nut salesman collected $7,160 in the last reporting period, nearly half that sum came from himself or family members. Less than $2000 appears to come from local residents. This leaves Stanton with having raised only $53,363 since the beginning of the campaign leaving him with a considerable amount he must still raise. By contrast, his opponent Andrew Cohen has collected $81,177 thus far, of which $15,175 was collected in the current filing period. Cohen is now very close to “maxing out,” the level he needs to reach to get the maximum amount of public matching funds. With Stanton falling behind, it puts additional pressure on him to raise a lot of money and very fast. And Stanton may well need it. With endorsements
pouring into the Cohen campaign even faster than money, he appears to be establishing an insurmountable lead. A third candidate, Cheryl Keeling, barely registered in the race to raise adequate funds. With only $1935 raised thus far, she has collected too little from too few to qualify for matching funds. In other election related news, Clifford Stanton claimed the endorsement of a group of “Northwest Bronx Democrats” who purported, according to their press release to have spearheaded the “Mark Gjonaj Bedford Park/Norwood” GOTV team, an apparently fictional entity. Along with the release was a photo of a group of people standing in front of a Gjonaj storefront. The clear implication presented by the release was that Gjonaj was backing Stanton, an assertion that is demonstrably false.
Two weeks ago, the new Assemblyman, Mark Gjonaj, who won a stunning victory defeating incumbent Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera last year, threw his support behind Andrew Cohen. Moreover, the Riverdale Review has obtained evidence that the press release from this ill-defined “group” of Democrats was actually written by Stanton staffer Jennifer Firestone. When Anthony Rivecchio, the contact name on the release was asked specifically about this, he refused to give details as the press release’s authorship. According to informed sources, this group will soon be put on the Stanton payroll, charged with circulating nominating petitions several weeks from now. Meanwhile, Assemblyman Gjonaj is said to be “doing a slow burn,” at the unauthorized use of his name, and may be contemplating how best to help his chosen candidate, Andrew Cohen.
Gala at the Riverdale Y demonstrates the value of community By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER A unique “Into the Woods” concert performance wowed a packed house at the Riverdale Y this past Saturday night, and the gala benefit raised a whopping $20,000 in scholarship funds for the organization’s growing theater programs. Modeled on the Encores! productions at City Center, the cast performed with scripts in hand and live orchestral accompaniment—without much in the way of staging, scenery or costumes. But Encores! works on eight days of eight-hour-a-day rehearsals, director Bob Walton noted in his intro, while this production materialized in something like eight hours of rehearsals in total. “I’m exaggerating a little bit, but we’d grab an hour here, two hours there, working around various schedules and conflicts,” he said. “And believe it or not, this afternoon was the first time we had the entire cast under the same roof in the same room at the same time.” New to the room were some seasoned Broadway actors called in by the Y’s artistic director Laurie Walton to contribute expertise and glamour. “Someone in my family had been in at least one or two shows with each of them,” she said. Laurie Walton herself is a successful Broadway performer—as is her husband, Bob Walton (director); her daughter, Emily Walton (Cinderella); and her brother-inlaw, Jim Walton (Narrator). She admitted that “the process was not without stress” and that she was concerned the stars “might regret having par-
ticipated”—particularly because there was so little rehearsal time with the orchestra. “But quite the contrary,” she said. “They were all so generous and very happy to have been part of the evening.” Shara Feit, a spirited Little Red Ridinghood, found working with Broadway luminaries “absolutely incredible.” “It was a little intimidating at first, as I have seen a few of them perform both on Broadway and off-Broadway,” she said. “Watching them during rehearsals was a really special learning experience, and they were all genuinely nice and more than willing to help their castmates.” Feit was pleased to get some help with mic malfunctions by Joe Cassidy (The Baker) during a long rehearsal. Other guest performers were Jamey Hood (The Baker’s Wife), Maryrose Wood (Jack’s Mother), Nancy Johnston (Cinderella’s Mother) and Joseph Kolinski (Mysterious Man). Walton has directed the Riverdale Rising Stars for the past 13 years, but this performance marked the first time, except for one song in a recent gala, that she’s ever appeared onstage in her home venue. As the formidable Witch, she still did her share of directing— when she wasn’t busy casting evil spells and doling out sharp pains, she was expertly ruining the life of her daughter, Rapunzel. Her rendition of the rap-style narrative on the history of the spells was a hilarious feat. A crossover concatenation, the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine blockbuster mingles
Little Red Ridinghood (Shara Feit, right) interacts with The Baker (Joe Cassidy) and The Baker’s Wife (Jamey Hood) in a concert production of “Into the Woods” at the Riverdale Y’s gala fundraising event last Saturday night. fairy tale favorites with a tale of its own, complete with dysfunctional parents, an old boys’ network of Prince Charmings and a life lesson on the value of community. Musical director Justin Fischer assembled the fabulous 12-member orchestra, the largest ever to play on that stage. A lush backdrop mural created by Kate Stigdon brought the house right into the woods. Event chair January Akselrad, who’s spearheaded two decades of fundraisers at the Y, was pleased with what she called a
“real group effort” involving a dedicated group of participants she could call on at “every step of the way.” Akselrad said it was important to her that the $20,000 proceeds be directed specifically toward scholarships—not “disappear into the operating ether.” She said part of the event’s theme was to recognize the value of the theater program and its director. “There’s now a whole theater school, which teaches everything from doing auditions, to fencing to diction and elocution. There’s
a whole summer camp that is all theater. So 12 months a year, kids can feed that passion. And it’s safe, and it’s community, and it’s appropriate.” “RRS has been a second family to me since eighth grade,” said Feit, an SAR senior and a Rising Stars veteran. “I can honestly say that I have made some of my best friends through RRS. Throughout my time in the program, I have grown both artistically and personally. I can’t thank Laurie enough for creating a place for teens who love theater to grow and learn from one another.”