New York City Celebrates the Marx Brothers

KATHY BIEHL, actress (Ruby Mintworth in the 2014 and 2016 productions of I’ll Say She Is) and co-organizer of Marxfest 2014 and 2024, is also an award-winning professional astrologer with more than 30 years’ experience. Read her forecasts and learn about her services at EmpowermentUnlimited.net. She is the author of Eat, Drink & Be Wary: Cautionary Tales and Confessions of a Third-Rate Goddess: Traipsing Through a World Gone Weird.

NOAH DIAMOND restored and adapted the Marx Brothers' 1924 masterpiece I’ll Say She Is, and played Groucho in its first-ever revivals, at the New York International Fringe Festival (2014) and Off Broadway at the Connelly Theater (2016). Other Marxian projects include a trilogy of streaming documentaries created for the Freedonia Marxonia festival: Home Again: The Marx Brothers and New York City (2020), There's Nothing Like Liberty: The Marx Brothers and America (2021), and If You Get Near a Song, Play It: The Marx Brothers and Music (2022). He is the author of Gimme a Thrill: The Story of I'll Say She Is, and can be heard monthly as co-host of The Marx Brothers Council Podcast. Non-Marx projects include 400 Years in Manhattan, Love Marches On, Quarantigone, and the Nero Fiddled musicals, all co-created with Amanda Sisk. Learn more at noahdiamond.com.

JANET HEIT is an award-winning arts writer and curator, and the noodge behind Another Nice Mask, a lockdown-era initiative that used comedy to encourage covid masking. She is a board member of Silent Clowns Cinema, and earns her keep as a grantwriter for nonprofits. And when she isn’t doing any of the above, she can often be found baking bialys and babkas.

KEVIN C. FITZPATRICK, in 2014, asked who wanted to celebrate the centennial of the Marx Brothers adopting the “o” nicknames. Thus, the first Marxfest was born. Kevin is the author and editor of eight books, including The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide and A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York. In 1998 he launched dorothyparker.com and the Dorothy Parker Society. In 2020 he transferred Mrs. Parker’s urn to Woodlawn Cemetery. Kevin is currently working on two more books about the Vicious Circle. In 2023 he became Shepherd of The Lambs. Visit FitzpatrickAuthor.com.

BRETT LEVERIDGE is an author, humorist and flâneur who, as a mere child of 24, left the mean streets of Oklahoma City for the tranquil arcadia that is New York City. He is the author of Men My Mother Dated: And Other Mostly True Tales, a Thurber Prize for American Humor finalist that is available for a pittance (and in near-mint and unread condition) at a used bookstore near you. He is also the man behind the curtain at Cladrite Radio, a streaming radio station that features toe-tapping tunes of the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s.

JONNY PORKPIE: A Day on the Boardwalk, A Night at the Sideshow is Jonny’s second Marx Brothers-inspired burlesque play, following The Bawdy House (Marxfest 2014). A burlesque performer, emcee, writer, and producer, Jonny recently retired from a decade-long stint as a producer and emcee at The Burlesque Hall of Fame to focus on his first love: scripted theatrical burlesque shows. These shows—which include Off-Broadway productions of Pretençión: un burlesque de cirque and Dead Sexy (returning from the grave this October)—have been lauded as the “Best Burlesque” in NYC by New York magazine and the Village Voice. His burlesque game show The Naked Truth toured to over 30 cities in 5 countries on 3 continents. After a celebrated run last December, his Filthy Lucre: A Burlesque Christmas Carol returns to the Laurie Beechman theater for the holiday season. He has, ludicrously, an MFA in Creative Writing for Children. jonnyporkpie.com

TRAV S.D. (Travis Stewart) is proud to have been director and producer of the 2014 iteration of Noah Diamond’s revival and reconstruction of I’ll Say She Is, the Marx Brothers’ first Broadway show. He is the creator of the show biz and cultural blog Travalanche as well as the books No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous (Faber & Faber, 2005), Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to YouTube (BearManor Media, 2013), and his latest, The Marx Brothers Miscellany (BearManor Media, 2024). Trav has also written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, American Theatre, Reason, The New York Sun, and numerous other publications. He majored in film and television at NYU Tisch sometime during the late 20th century, and has been making theatre in New York City for nearly four decades.