Marilyn Michaels

Marilyn Michaels (born Marilyn Sternberg, February 26, 1943) is a comedian, singer, actress, impressionist, author, and composer.

Marilyn Michaels
Birth nameMarilyn Sternberg
Born (1943-02-26) February 26, 1943
New York City
GenresPop, standards, jazz, classical, comedy, acting, dialectician
Occupation(s)Singer, comedian, writer
LabelsDebbie Records, Warner Bros. Records, ABC Paramount,
WebsiteMarilyn Michaels.com

Family

Marilyn Michaels was born in Manhattan to Russian Jewish émigré parents. Her mother was cantoress and actress Fraydele Oysher and her father was Harold Sternberg, a senior basso with the Metropolitan Opera for 37 years. Cantor and film actor Moishe Oysher was her uncle.[1]

Michaels began performing with her mother at age 7 on the Yiddish stage and throughout Canada. At 14, she was soloist in her father and uncle's choir, and also sang duets with Oysher on the classic recording, "Moishe Oysher's Chanukah Party".

She attended the High School of Music & Art as a music major, but switched to Art in her sophomore year.[2][3] While still in high school, she was signed to Debbie Records, headed by Ray Rainwater (brother of Marvin Rainwater) and her first single, "Johnny Where Are You," was produced by Phil Ramone. This was followed by a recording contract with RCA Victor record producers Hugo and Luigi, for which she sang "Tell Tommy I Miss Him" — the answer-song to the hit "Tell Laura I Love Her" — by Ray Peterson.[4] She recorded both U.S. and UK versions. She later recorded for Warner Brothers and ABC Paramount [5][6] and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Jackie Gleason American Scene Magazine and NBC's Hullabaloo, with Sammy Davis Jr.[7] She would appear with Davis again on The Name of the Game, The Flip Wilson Show, and Sammy in Acapulco.[8]

Funny Girl, Kopykats, and Playboy

In 1965, after signing with ABC Paramount and starring at New York's Copacabana,[9][10][11] as well as Las Vegas and London, Michaels starred for a year as Fanny Brice in the National Company of Funny Girl.[12][13][14] She reprised the role six months after the year-long run ended when Carol Lawrence was injured before her turn as Fanny at the Westbury Music Fair in Long Island, New York.[15]

During Funny Girl, Marilyn made appearances on The Dean Martin Show and The Red Skelton Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and The Jonathan Winters Show. In 1973 she starred as the only female performer in the Emmy-nominated comedy series The Kopykats for ABC's Kraft Music Hall (Smith Hemion Productions).[16][17][18][19] Michaels later starred with Rich Little in a 1981 TV commercial for the Diet 7 Up Campaign, "Look Who's Turning Diet 7 Up".[20]

She appeared in a Playboy pictorial for Playboy as Bette Midler, Bo Derek, Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Lily Tomlin, and Brooke Shields.[21] She reprised some of these characters while working with Debbie Reynolds on The Love Boat in 1982. In that year, Woody Allen also cast her in a cameo as 1930s film star Mae West in Zelig. When Allen decided to cut the piece, preferring documentary footage to an impression, Marilyn wrote of her experience working with Allen, including photos showing her dressed in Woody's garb, for US Weekly.[22]

In 1983, she performed five voices for the PBS series Reading Rainbow for the book "Gregory the Terrible Eater", and was all the voices for the satire audio book, "Frankly Scarlett, I Do Give a Damn!"[23]

Catskills on Broadway—Present

Marilyn made her Broadway debut at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in the original cast of Catskills on Broadway,[24] which won the Outer Circle Critics Award for Best Comedy.[25] She performed in her own revue, Broadway Ballyhoo, at Harrah's in Atlantic City,[26] and was the host of the radio show The Broadway Hour on WEVD-AM New York.[27] She has written two articles for The New York Times regarding the proposed revival of Funny Girl,[28] and has composed the score, as well as co-written the libretto, to a new musical comedy, Alysha, with son Mark Wilk.[29]

Personal life

On October 5, 2008, Michaels married her third husband, Steven Portnoff, in her Upper West Side apartment.[30]

Discography
  • The Moishe Oysher Chanukah Party (1957)
  • Johnny Where Are You (1959)
  • Tell Tommy I Miss Him (single, 1960)
  • Danny (single, '60)
  • Past the Age of Innocence (single, '60)
  • Fraydele Oysher and Her Daughter Marilyn: Yiddish Soul (1961)
  • Marilyn Michaels, The Fantastic and Exciting Debut 1963
  • Don’t Count The Days (Bacharach/David single, 1967)
  • Macarthur Park (single, 1967)
  • My Red Riding Hood (single, '67)
  • I’m Naïve ('67 single, from The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood)
  • The Times They Are A Changin ('67)
  • I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now ('67 Single)
  • Voices (1983)
  • A Mother’s Voice (1998)
  • The Oysher Heritage: Moishe Oysher, Fraydele Oysher (2005)
  • Wonderful At Last (2008)

Filmography

References
  1. "Fraydele Oysher, 90, Actress Who Starred in Yiddish Theater". The New York Times. January 10, 2004.
  2. "Dewar's Profile". Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  3. Fields, Sidney (September 6, 1967). "Only Human, Our Local Redgraves". New York Daily News. p. 62. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  4. "Tell Tommy I Miss Him". Discogs.
  5. Eaker, Ira (February 12, 1965). "Marilyn Michaels Cinderella Vintage 65". Backstage.
  6. Dominic, Serene (December 1, 2003). Burt Bacharach, Song by Song. New York: Schirmer Trade Books. pp. 195–196. ISBN 978-0-8256-7280-4.
  7. "Liner Notes".
  8. Fishgall, Gary (December 2003). Gonna Do Great Things: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. Scribner. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-7432-2741-4.
  9. "Blab It Interview". September 7, 2013.
  10. LaPole, Nick (July 2, 1965). "Marilyn's Magnificent". Journal American.
  11. Sobol, Lewis (July 2, 1965). "New York Cavalcade". Journal American.
  12. "Girl Next Door". Newsday. July 19, 1965.
  13. Smith, Cecil (June 5, 1966). "Marilyn Michaels, A Funny Girl". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  14. Safran, Don (October 6, 1965). "Funny Girl in Rehearsal Here". Dallas Times Herald.
  15. Kanter, Nathan; Henry, Richard (August 23, 1967). "Carol's Cut is Marilyn's Break". New York Daily News. p. 4.
  16. Nachman, Gerald (March 17, 1972). "Kopykats Copy Excellence, Impersonating Top Stars". New York Daily News. p. 77.
  17. Shain, Percy (February 20, 1972). "Queen of the Mimics and Her Court Jesters". The Boston Globe. p. TV5. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  18. McCann, Hank (January 16, 1972). "Kopykats, a Korps of Korkers". The Long Island Press.
  19. Harris, Harry (February 20, 1972). "Marilyn Michaels Mimics the Stars and Becomes One". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  20. Rich Little & Marilyn Michaels 1981 Diet 7Up Commercial. YouTube. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021.
  21. "Playboy Magazine August 1982 vol.29, no.8". Vintage 'Playboy' Mags.
  22. "Chopping Woody". US Weekly. August 29, 1983.
  23. Pesky, Nancy K.; West, Beverly (December 1996). Frankly Scarlett, I Do Give A Damn!: A Parody: Classics Romances Retold. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0694516292.
  24. "Catskills on Broadway Broadway Original Cast". Broadway World. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  25. "1991-1992 Awards". Outer Circle Critics Award. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  26. "On The Boardwalk". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 3, 2018.
  27. "Around The Dial". New York Daily News. March 13, 1993. p. 45.
  28. Michaels, Marilyn (June 30, 2011). "Theater Talkback: A Stage 'Funny Girl' (Not That One) on Why the Role Is Hard to Cast". The New York Times Artsbeat.
  29. Musbach, Julie (August 10, 2018). "Marilyn Michaels Releases Autobiography". Broadway World.
  30. Grynbaum, Michael M. (October 25, 2008). "Marilyn Michaels and Steven Portnoff". The New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
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