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.

Nancy Anderson, a daughter of Needham, grew up on Border Road and then Fisher Street with her brother Scott and sister Valerie. Her theatre and music roots run deep – her parents performed in the 1959 NHS production of The Royal Family, her grandmother was a child prodigy violinist, and her great-grandfather played in The Buffalo Bill Wild West Show!

Nancy spent twelve formative artistic years at the Charles River Creative Arts Program in Dover. At Needham High, Nancy and her siblings all performed in musicals. In 1987 while she was playing the title character in Peter Pan at Needham High, Valerie, a professional dancer, was choreographing NCT’s Anything Goes.

After graduating in 1988, she studied at Tufts and the New England Conservatory and spent summers at The College Light Opera Company in Falmouth, a one-week stock company. In 1992 she booked an acting job in New York City and embarked on a distinguished professional career in musical theatre.

Nancy has appeared on Broadway in A Class Act, Wonderful Town, Sunset Boulevard and 1776. She also appeared in the London revival of Kiss Me Kate where she was nominated for an Olivier Award for playing Lois Lane/Bianca.

Nancy has performed many times in Off-Broadway, regional and touring productions, appeared on television and has released an album entitled Ten Cents a Dance. In addition to her Olivier nomination, Nancy has received three Drama Desk Nominations, four Helen Hayes Nominations, and won the 2011 Noel Coward Cabaret Award.

Nancy currently resides in Staunton, VA where she is the Director of Dance at Mary Baldwin University and a Professor of Practice in musical theatre voice at Shenandoah Conservatory. Nancy recently produced and starred in a film of The Pen, a Drama Desk-nominated one-woman musical which she previously performed Off-Broadway.

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.

NCT honored Sarah at the opening night performance of Spelling Bee on May 13th, 2022 .

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.