David Lefkowitz

David Lefkowitz b. 1/23/64, is a playwright, theater critic and radio personality, born and raised in New York.

As "Dave" Lefkowitz, he is the producer and host of "Dave's Gone By," a weekly radio show that has aired on Long Island's WGBB (AM-1240) since Oct. 6, 2002. The show, which currently airs Sundays at 11pm(ET), mixes regular features (the satirical "News Gone By"; the whimsical "World Weird Web") with original novelty songs ("Joey, the Spastic Kangaroo," "Makin' Poopies," "Jeopardy Ken," "99 Barrels of Oil") and various guests (e.g., Tom Paxton, Christine Lavin, Jill Sobule, Fyvush Finkel, Viacom founder Ralph Baruch, Joe Franklin, Sheldon Harnick, Peter Tork, Wreckless Eric, Frank Wildhorn, competitive whistler Steve Herbst, opera fanatic Stefan Zucker, and street-singer Art Paul Schlosser). Dave's song, "Jeopardy Ken," was played on the Dr. Demento syndicated radio program.

Recurring comic characters on "Dave's Gone By" include Peter Fitzgerald (vice-president of WGLFAR - the Woodmere Gay/Lesbian Front...and Rear), and Rabbi Sol Solomon, who has interviewed such entertainers as Bruce Adler, Paulette Attie and, briefly and unpleasantly, Mandy Patinkin. (more info: davesgoneby.org). Theater critic Jeff Goodman often serves as guest co-host on the program.

On Oct. 3, 2007, Rabbi Sol Solomon was spun off into the public-access television and Youtube video program, "Shalom, Dammit! Rabbi Sol Solomon's Peace, Love & Acid-Reflux Hour." The 30-minute airs weekly (Wed & Fri, 7:30am (ET)), on Cablevision of Long Island (Woodbury, ch. 115) and Sundays 1:30pm on NYC's Manhattan Neighborhood Network (ch. 67). The program mixes Jewish-themed monologues, sketch comedy and interviews.

From December 2006-April 2007, Lefkowitz and Jeff Goodman teamed up to co-host the talk-radio program, "The Big Time," on a Long Island college station. More free-form than "Dave's Gone By," "The Big Time" included listener call-ins, more music and a less formal talk-and-banter set-up. In the 1990s, Lefkowitz founded "This Month ON STAGE" theater magazine, a compilation of theater reviews from around the world. The magazine folded in 2000 to be reborn as the website "TotalTheater.com," which expanded the reviews of TMOS and added further theater-related features.

In 2002, after five years as writer and then editor of Playbill On-Line, Lefkowitz became co-publisher (with actor/critic Richmond Shepard) of "Performing Arts Insider," a Broadway theater-industry journal founded in 1944 (more info: performingartsinsider.com).

As a New York University student in the 1980s, Lefkowitz studied film, television and radio production (undergrad) and playwriting/screenwriting (grad). His written work includes the book of plays, "Marriage, Babies & the End of the World" (including the Moliere-style farce, "The Triple Wedding", written for his Master's thesis), and "Kandide", which won the Lee Korf Playwriting Awardfact|date=May 2008 and was subsequently produced at The Original Theater Works in Los Angeles. One-act plays produced off-off-Broadway include "The Sky is Calling," "Blind Date" and "King Solomon, The Wise." In March 2008, a slightly revised version of "Blind Date" was staged as part of the "Cream of the Crop" one-act festival at off-off-Broadway's Richmond Shepard Theater.

A freelance theater critic and arts journalist since 1988, Lefkowitz is a member of the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle and has written for "Playbill, Playboy, Stage Directions, Time Out-NY, Back Stage, Theater Week, Long Island Press, The Long Island Improper" and "Show Business." In 2007, he became chief news writer for TheaterNewsOnline.com while continuing to write reviews and features for "The Long Island Pulse" and "New York Theater News."

A member of the American Theater Critics Association, Lefkowitz edited the final three editions of their annual journal, "Critics Review" (2004-2006). He also penned the introductory essays to three volumes of the annual "Best Plays" book series (1996-98), published by Limelight Editions.

Married since 1998, Lefkowitz lives on Long Island with a wife, two dogs, two frogs and more than 240 stuffed potatoes (from the Vegetable Friends collection).