Raunchy Little Musical—Belle Barth is Back!
For Booking of
“Raunchy Little Musical”
Contact: Producer/Director
Jimmy Ferraro
727-457-7768
Angels@pasco.org
BWW Review: RAUNCHY LITTLE MUSICAL
at Landmark On Main Street
by Anthony Hazzard & Scott Stolzenberg 
Comedienne Belle Barth is back in “Raunchy Little Musical,” a lighthearted hysterical show celebrating her extraordinary life. In an age where men were the kings of comedy, Belle conquered show business and made a name for herself as the female Lenny Bruce telling bawdy jokes. Despite failed marriages, the lack of support from her mother, and getting fined and arrested for her foulmouth, Belle still managed to headline the comedy clubs and make the world laugh.
“Raunchy Little Musical” is headed on tour to a city near you and luckily we were able to get a glimpse at the Landmark Theater on Main Street in Port Washington. The show features a sidesplitting book by Joanne Koch and an original catchy score by Ilya Levinson and Owen Kalt. Belle Barth was born Annabelle Salzman. The Jewish comedienne amused the patrons of hotels and nightclubs with her twisted tongue in the 1950’s and 1960’s. She recorded her comedy routine on many popular records and even played Carnegie Hall. Salzman married five times and reinvented herself more times than that.
BWW Review: RAUNCHY LITTLE MUSICAL at Landmark On Main StreetBringing Belle to life is the extraordinary actress Sara Delbeato. Ms. Delbeato commands the stage with her cartoon-like persona and weaves Belle’s life story through song and humor. Her singing voice is strong and her charm and charisma even stronger. Ms. Delbeato zings the audience with naughty one liners and makes us blush with every filthy thing that comes out of her mouth. The Borscht belt jokes are shocking and just when you think she can’t say anything worse than she already said, she does. Even Ms. Delbeato can’t help from laughing along with us at Belle’s salacious material.
The musical comedy also features the convincing David Craven as all the men in Belle’s life. Each character he creates is so vastly different that you’d think there were dozens of male actors in the show. Mr. Craven is a man of many voices and talents. Jimmy Ferraro’s direction is fast and fun full of quick changes, classic storytelling and pure comedy.
At the end of show, I’m sure the audience’s cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling just as much as ours. In fact, it was hard to keep a straight face during the ninety minutes and we never got a chance to breathe in between jokes. Ms. Delbeato seemed to be having the time of her life playing this lush character just as much as we enjoyed watching her. Belle’s trip through yesteryear is an old fashioned love letter to comediennes everywhere such as queen of comedy Joan Rivers who struggled and succeeded in a male dominated profession. Belle’s legacy will live forever and thanks to her nonstop determination for pursuing her passion, the authors of “Raunchy Little Musical” made sure that Belle’s audience gets the last laugh!
“Raunchy Little Musical—Belle Barth is Back!” received rave reviews at performances in Tampa, described by Deb Kelley in Broadway World as:
“an incredible love letter to the woman who had the balls to act like a man, in a time when women were expected to be prim and proper. . .
“There’s no doubt—after laughing on and off for 100 minutes, people will be talking about this show. . .
“Sara DelBeato IS Belle. She’s a prettier, voluptuous, powerhouse embodiment of the comedian, an exuberant force of nature. . .
“This isn’t just a story about a little-known female comedian’s rise to face; it’s a woman looking for love—love withheld by a disapproving mother, love freely given by a father lost too soon, love from men who always disappointed, and love from an audience who always came through.”
“The play is expertly crafted, and the actors were amazing to watch as they brought Joanne Koch’s words to life in a flawless production.”
Go to Produced & Published Plays and Musicals for the following:
| “American Klezmer” | “Danny Kaye: Supreme Court Jester” |
| “Motherland” | “Saul Bellows Stories on Stage” |
| “Soul Sisters” | “A Leading Woman” |
| “Stardust” | “Courage like a wild horse” |
| “Safe Harbor” | “Henrietta Szold: Woman of Valor” |
| “Sophie, Totie & Belle” | “Shared Stages” |
Go to Other Produced Plays For:
| “Nesting Dolls” | “Teeth” |
| “Haymarket: footnote to a bombing” | “Sandburg Among the Goats” |
| “Hearts in the Wood” | “Flying Feathers” |
© 2024 Joanne Koch. All rights reserved.
Joanne Koch
Playwright
Joanne Koch has had eighteen of her plays and musicals produced around the country. “Stardust” won the 2007 National Nantucket Short Play Competition, was produced in the Turtle Shell Summer Shorties Festival in New York City, published by Dramatic Publishing Company, produced at the Pine Crest School in Ft. Lauderdale and later published in Stars: Nantucket Short Play Competition Winners. “Mammaries” was produced by the Turtle Shell Summer Shorties in New York and at the Nantucket Short Play Festival directed by Eve Messing.
Joanne Koch has received three Illinois Arts Council grants, a Midwest Emmy Award, First Prize in the Piscator Foundation Eighth International Playwriting Competition, the Chicago Patrons’ Award, and numerous other grants and fellowships.
Dr. Koch’s plays and musicals, including “Haymarket,” “Nesting Dolls,” “Sophie, Totie & Belle,” “A Leading Woman,” “Teeth,” “American Klezmer,” and “Saul Bellow’s Stories on Stage,” have been produced off Broadway and in theaters in Albany, Queens, Philadelphia, New Hope, Boston, Miami, Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago, Milwaukee, Akron, Carbondale, Champaign, Kalamazoo, Los Angeles, San Diego.
Joanne Koch’s teleplays and educational films have garnered numerous prizes, including a Regional Emmy and the American Film & Video First Prize.
Dr. Koch is the co-editor of Shared Stages, the ten-play anthology that includes “Fires in the Mirror,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Medal of Honor Rag,” “I AM A MAN” and “Soul Sisters”. She is the co-author of nonfiction books, magazine and newspaper articles, and previously a column syndicated to 200 papers around the country.
Dr. Koch directed the graduate writing program of National University, Chicago, the Master’s in Written Communication. She won the NLU “Excellence in Teaching Award,” initiated their annual literary anthology Mosaic, and their Writers’ Week Workshops.
Now Professor Emerita, Joanne Koch continues to collaborate on her own plays and musicals, including “Motherland,” with Fern Schumer Chapman, based on Chapman’s award-winning book, and “Good Trouble,” the play set to tour Chicago high schools in 2024. In this powerful play teenager Jamal meets unsung civil rights champion Fred D. Gray and encounters Rosa Parks, young Martin Luther King, Jr and young John Lewis. Fred D. Gray at 93 was honored by President Joe Biden with the Presidential Freedom Award, the highest honor an American Citizen can receive. He is alive and well, still practicing law in Alabama and fighting segregation where ever he finds it.
Through her work with the Chicago Writers’ Bloc, a not-for-profit playwright development group celebrating its 30th anniversary (www.writersblocfest.org), with partial funding from the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Inc., Joanne Koch has helped to bring over one hundred new plays to audiences in Chicago, with many of these new plays going on to other productions and publications.
Joanne Koch is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.