L ifestyle /C ulture
Ari Shapiro’s ‘Och and Oy’ to Run at Kimmel Center
T H EATER
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
THOUGH HOST OF National
Public Radio’s All Things
Considered since 2015, Ari
Shapiro is far from having a
face made for radio.

The journalist will take to
the stage on Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.

the Kimmel Cultural Campus’s
Merriam Theater, joining actor
and performer Alan Cumming
in “Och and Oy: A Considered
Cabaret.” A departure from his
usual reporting, but a return
to Shapiro’s long love of stage
performance, “Och and Oy” is
a nod to Shapiro’s Jewish roots
and Cumming’s Scottish ones.

Shapiro describes the
cabaret as having “some of
the thoughtful conversations
that you would expect from a
public radio broadcast, as well
as the kind of entertaining
song and dance numbers that
you would expect from an
Alan Cumming show.”
The one-night show also
underlines the return of
in-person performances for the
Kimmel Center’s 2021-2022
season, which began on Sept. 18.

“What you have with Alan
are a little ragged around
Cumming and Ari Shapiro is
the edges, the things that
one of those combinations
are unexpected, the things
where the whole is greater
that don’t go the way you
than the sum of its parts,”
had planned, are actually
said Matías Tarnopolsky,
the best, most delightful
incoming president and CEO
moments,” Shapiro said.

of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Rather than thinking
and Kimmel Center, Inc.

about bearing his soul to
The duo has known each
a large audience, Shapiro
other since 2014, when
instead thinks
about Shapiro met Cumming
confiding in Cumming,
backstage of the “Cabaret”
whom he considers a friend,
Broadway revival in which
during “Och & Oy” perfor-
Shapiro’s friend
was mances, where Shapiro tells
performing. Cumming
stories of himself growing up.

played the show’s Emcee.

“Friends have sometimes
From left: Alan Cumming and
The two developed a Ari Shapiro wrote “Och and Oy: A
asked if it’s intimidating
Cabaret” as a nod to their
friendship over the next five Considered
— sharing the stage with
respective Scottish and Jewish roots.

Courtesy of Hannah Clough somebody as accomplished
years until the idea for “Och
and Oy” was conceived in
as Alan,” Shapiro said. “And
2019. Cumming, whom Shapiro the truth is, it’s the opposite
“Over the course of several believes demonstrates the because Alan is so good at what
years, our paths continued to vulnerability he stays away he does.”
cross,” Shapiro said. “And then from in public radio, but hopes
Though Cumming is a
one day, Alan said, ‘You know, to embody onstage.

veteran of the stage, Shapiro is
you and I should make a show
Shapiro insists that he no stranger to performing.

together,’ and we have.”
wanted to pursue the oppor-
Shapiro remembered
A journalist with NPR for tunity to perform in his own attending plays with his
more than 20 years, Shapiro cabaret show because he parents growing up, where he
is used to asking the questions wanted to continue to grow was enraptured by the worlds
and spotlighting his interview outside of NPR. Along the way, the performers created on stage
subject. Being the subject of his Cumming has taught Shapiro for the audience to live in for
own show, he learned to “use a some unexpected lessons.

the duration of the show.

different muscle set.”
“Alan has taught me that
He made his theater debut
Shapiro took cues from sometimes the things that at a Jewish Community Center
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JEWISH EXPONENT
summer theater camp in
Portland, Oregon, not far from
Beaverton, Oregon, where he
grew up.

Since 2009, Shapiro has
periodically performed
with the band Pink Martini,
becoming versatile in singing
in multiple languages.

Yet “Och and Oy” is much
different than his time in Pink
Martini, Shapiro said.

“As a guest performer who
shows up and sings a song or
a couple of songs, getting to
tour with [Pink Martini] is an
experience like summer camp,”
Shapiro said. “Creating the
show with Alan was building
something from scratch —
collaboratively — just the two
of us and our musical director,
Henry Koperski, then watching
it come to fruition, creating it
on stage, night-after-night.”
Though “Och and Oy” was
originally scheduled for the
Kimmel Center in October
2020, little has changed about
the show’s content over the
pandemic. Early this summer, when
Shapiro and
Cumming reunited after a year-and-a-
half apart to perform “Och and
Oy” once more, they tweaked
the show to incorporate the
ongoing pandemic, but with
little success.

They ultimately decided to
not include the pandemic in
the show.

“We realized that was not
what people wanted and, in
fact, people have spent their
lives for more than a year
now consumed with dire,
depressing news,” Shapiro said.

“What this show can provide
is something delightful and
surprising and refreshing
and new.”
Tickets for “Och and Oy: A
Considered Cabaret” are avail-
able atkimmelculturalcampus.

org/. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
New 76ers Voice Details Her Jewish Background
S P ORTS
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
SINCE KATE SCOTT is a
notable “fi rst,” her identity is
a central part of her narrative.

Scott, the new television
voice of the Philadelphia 76ers
for NBC Sports Philadelphia,
is the fi rst woman to call an
NFL game on the radio, an
NHL game on television and
Olympic men’s basketball in
general, among several other
“fi rsts.”
Now, alongside Milwaukee
Bucks announcer
Lisa Byington, also hired this year,
Scott, 38, is about a week away
from becoming the “fi rst”
female voice of a major profes-
sional sports team in North
America. Th e Sixers open
their 2021-’22 season on Oct.

20 against the New Orleans
Pelicans. As a gay woman, too, Scott
is well aware that fans and
media will oft en see her as a
representative for her identity
groups. At the same time, there
is one Scott identity that gets
a little less attention in the
narrative about her career.

Much like her predecessor
with the Sixers, Marc Zumoff ,
Scott is Jewish.

Or, to put it more accurately,
Scott has a Jewish mom:
Maggie Cone. But as Scott
knows, that’s what counts.

Th ough the broadcaster is
no longer religious, she did say,
“I’m Jewish,” when asked.

“It’s a really important part
of who my mom is,” said Scott.

“I try to honor that.”
One way she honored it was
by revealing some fun Jewish
facts about herself.

“My sister and I went to
Sunday school”
Scott’s father is a Methodist
Christian, so when Scott and
her sister were young, they
were exposed to both religions.

Growing up in Clovis,
California, they went to Jewish
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Sunday school, but they also
attended church activities with
their paternal grandmother.

Cone and her husband wanted
their children to understand
both faiths so they could
choose their own, if they
wanted to, once they got older.

Th e sisters celebrated Jewish
holidays with their parents
and family friends and got
Chanukah gift s from their
maternal grandparents, who
lived in Connecticut, every
December. Th ey did, however, stop
going to Sunday school before
they were old enough to have
b’not mitzvah.

“It wasn’t an in-depth
Jewish upbringing. We didn’t
have Friday night dinner,”
Cone said. “But it was very
important to me. So I tried to
instill it in the kids.”
“I worked at a Jewish deli in
Berkeley” Aft er blowing out her knee
playing travel soccer, Scott
couldn’t earn a collegiate
scholarship in her favorite
sport. So later in high school,
aft er showing her speaking
and leadership skills as class
president, Scott was encour-
aged by a teacher to pursue
broadcasting. The new voice of the
Sixers started her journey at
the University of California,
Berkeley. While there, she also
worked at a Jewish deli, Saul’s,
to earn extra money.

Scott spent her weekends
making Reuben sandwiches
and gathering whitefish
orders for California Jews who
relocated from New York. On
breaks, she would eat chicken
liver sandwiches ... with pickles
on the side.

Whenever Scott’s parents
would visit, the family would
eat at Saul’s.

“Th at was another thing that
made my mom very happy,”
Scott said, laughing.

for the PAC 12 Networks and
NBC Sports Bay Area. A couple
of the hall’s board members
knew of her background and
liked her work, according to
the broadcaster.

Th ey also knew she had
achieved a couple “fi rsts.”
“Th at was a wonderful
ceremony,” Scott said of her
induction. “Every year we FaceTime with
my mom and light the candles”
Scott and her wife are not
religious, but they do celebrate
Chanukah with Cone. Every
year, they FaceTime Cone,
and they all light the candles
together from their respective
locations. She carries her menorah
with her wherever her career
takes her.

“Th at makes my mom very
“I am a member of the Jewish happy,” Scott said.

Sports Hall of Fame of
Cone is excited for her
Northern California”
In 2016, Scott was inducted daughter to go to Philadelphia,
into the Jewish Sports Hall of one of the biggest Jewish
Fame of Northern California. markets in the country.

Aft er Scott arrived in the
She did much of her earlier
broadcast work in the San city, she met Zumoff for lunch
Francisco Bay Area, including at a deli to discuss her new role.

Kate Scott, left, will become the
new TV voice of the Sixers during
the upcoming season.

Courtesyof The NBC Sports Group
Th en, naturally, she told her
mom about where they ate.

“It’s where she was meant to
be,” Cone said.

Scott, for her part, said that,
if she reached a point where she
wanted to consider a faith, she
could see herself reconnecting
with Judaism.

“It’s always seemed like
a very kind, welcoming and
inclusive religion to me,” she
said. “Th ose things have meant
a lot to me in my life and
career.” ●
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