Needham Theatre
Hall of Fame

Needham Community Theatre has established the Needham Theatre Hall of Fame to celebrate Needhamites who have distinguished themselves in professional theater.

Sarah Saltzberg is the 2022 Inductee into the Needham Theatre Hall of Fame

Sarah Saltzberg grew up in Needham, attending Broadmeadow Elementary School, Pollard Middle School and Needham High. She began acting early, appearing in productions while at Broadmeadow. She credits a fifth-grade production of Alice in Wonderland as igniting her passion for theatre.

After graduating from Boston University in 1998 where she studied acting, Sarah began her professional acting career in New York City. While working as a waitress and a weekend nanny for the playwright Wendy Wasserstein, Sarah helped to develop C-R-E-P-E-S-C-U-L-E, the play that became The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She created the character of Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre which she then originated on Broadway when the show opened in 2005. The Bee ran on Broadway for three years.

Sarah subsequently created, produced and starred in the improvisation and sketch comedy show Don’t Quit Your Night Job at Joe’s Pub in New York City and co-wrote the Off-Broadway comedy Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage.

She has also appeared Off-Broadway in The Donkey Show, Sinfully Rich, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and in her one-woman show Dear Diary: The Making of Logainne Schwartzandgrubenairre. Most recently, Sarah co-created the 2018 Broadway musical Gettin’ the Band Back Together.

In 2012, Sarah founded Bohemia Realty Group, a real estate firm comprised primarily of artists and performers. While that is now her principal professional focus, she continues to create theatre.

We will honor Sarah just before the curtain rises at the opening night performance of Spelling Bee on May 13th .

Our inaugural inductee was Gerard Alessandrini.

Gerard Alessandrini grew up in Needham and joined NCT in his teens, appearing in Kismet in 1971 and in Fiddler on the Roof (as Tevye) the next year at the age of eighteen. After graduating the Boston Conservatory in 1976, Gerard moved to New York City and worked as an actor for several years.

In 1981 he wrote a musical review that led to the opening of a show he called Forbidden Broadway on NY’s Upper West Side. That musical revue ran for an astonishing 2332 performances across many NYC locations, and was performed almost continuously for 25 years with frequent updates. It also toured nationally and internationally.

In addition to Forbidden Broadway, Gerard has had many other professional theatrical achievements, including the musical Spamilton which opened in New York in 2016 and played in Boston at the Huntington Theater in 2019.

Gerard was awarded a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater in 2006. Gerard has also been awarded an Obie Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and seven Drama Desk Awards.

Despite his busy professional career, Gerard has maintained his relationship with NCT over the years, returning one year to play Emile de Becque in an NCT staged play reading of South Pacific, and customizing Forbidden Broadway Comes to Needham: The Farce Awakens in 2016.