He’s worked with A-listers like Streisand. Now he’s ready to tell a few stories

There once was a popular ad campaign that said, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s” rye bread. So why not have Barbra Streisand’s Catholic Cuban-American co-director inaugurate the new “A Conversation With ...” series at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU in Miami Beach?

“I’m not Jewish, but as they say at the museum, I’m ‘Jew-ish,’ says Richard Jay-Alexander of Miami Beach. “I’ve worked with the greatest Jews in the history of the performing arts.”

A quarter-century ago, when Jay-Alexander ran producer Cameron Mackintosh’s North American operations, he gave performer Dudu Fisher Friday nights and Saturdays off to observe Sabbath during the Israeli cantor’s Broadway run of “Les Misérables.” “I’ve worked with Bette Midler. I’ve worked with Barbra. Everybody’s Jewish. There’d be no Broadway without Jews. Look at the history. That’s my altar.”

On his Facebook page (where he’s maxed out with 4,997 friends), Jay-Alexander describes himself: “I’m a guy who fell in love with theatre as a kid, growing up in a really small town. #DreamsComeTrue.”

Brash, with an oversize personality to match any of the stars he has worked with, Jay-Alexander will discuss his career Thursday night at the Jewish Museum with longtime pal Lee Brian Schrager.

“Everything Richard touches is big. Whether it starts big or ends big. Richard doesn't know how to think small,” says Schrager, founder and director of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and vice president of Southern Wine & Spirits.

The late show-biz publicist Charles Cinnamon, friends of both men, “had been trying to introduce us for a while. That was many, many years ago,” Schrager recalls. “Then, one day I was on Lincoln Road and Richard was with two friends of mine and from that point we’ve been good friends ever since.”

Born near Syracuse to Frank and Dulce Fernandez, Jay-Alexander majored in theater and music at State University of New York at Oswego, where he graduated in 1974. Within a few years, he was performing in Broadway’s “Zoot Suit” and working on-stage and off in “Amadeus.” In 1984, he was assistant stage manager and dance captain in Mackintosh’s revival of “Oliver!” starring Patti LuPone and Ron Moody. The next year, he stage managed “Song and Dance” starring Bernadette Peters, also a Mackintosh production.

Eventually, Mackintosh put Jay-Alexander in charge of his North American company’s crown jewel: “Les Miz,” the indomitable Tony-winning musical that has had three major Broadway runs and is again touring the U.S.

“The one thing I always say about Cameron is that he let me fly,” Jay-Alexander says. “He was British, I was American. Together, it was pretty amazing. We changed the landscape, particularly of the road and of touring.”

The Broadway duo parted company in the mid-1990s and Jay-Alexander quickly reinvented himself as the go-to concert director for larger-than-life musical stars, beginning with “Sondheim, Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall” in 1997, a benefit for Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York.

The following year, he and co-producer Ellen Wedner presented a series of New York cabaret artists at the Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, including the legendary Broadway and concert star Barbara Cook.

Other superstars he has worked with include Kristin Chenoweth, Johnny Mathis, Polly Bergen, Ricky Martin, Donna McKechnie, Rosie O’Donnell and Julie Andrews.

And Streisand.

Jay-Alexander has worked closely with “The Greatest Star” since 2000, when she performed her “Timeless” tour across the U.S. and Australia. Since then, he has co-directed (with Streisand) all her major tours and live concert appearances, including Israel in 2013 and the most recent, “The Music, The Mem'ries, The Magic.” The final performance of that tour, on Dec. 5, 2016, at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, was recorded and will be included beginning Nov. 22 as part of a new feature film on Netflix.

Despite it all, Jay-Alexander is still starstruck. On Oct 19, he directed musicians Desmond Child and Rudy Perez’s annual Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame La Musa Awards in Miami.

“I just got off the stage with Vicki Carr! Can somebody smack me?” he told the Miami Herald during a rehearsal break.

Next up: directing the annual Oscar Hammerstein Award presentation Dec. 4 in New York City. This year’s honorees are Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, the lyricist and composer of “The Fantasticks,” “I Do! I Do!” and “110 in the Shade,” which in 1963 featured TV’s future Cinderella, Lesley Ann Warren.

“I was writing to Lesley Ann Warren the other day. I’m going to be working with her in December,” Jay-Alexander says. “I sheepishly said, ‘I’m gushing as I type this. I’ve been a fan for so long.’ I mean she’s Lesley Ann Warren and I’m not.”

Turning 65 in May, Jay-Alexander has given up apartments in New York and West Hollywood, his primary residence being a house in North Beach he bought in 1992.

Last summer, he attended an exhibit opening at the Jewish Museum on Washington Avenue and that led to the birth of “A Conversation With ...,” patterned after a popular interview series at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan.

“He jumped at the idea and Lee jumped at the idea and it was done,” museum director Susan Gladstone said. “Next up will be Brett Ratner and Billy Corben in January. We also will have Judy Blume, the author, with [WLRN’s] Alicia Zuckerman in the spring.”

Schrager — who also boasts a big personality — says he can’t wait to join Jay-Alexander at the museum.

“How would you describe Richard? I always try to describe Richard before I introduce him to friends — so they’re prepared,” Schrager says. “He’s someone like me, who grew up modestly, had a dream and made it on his own. Nobody gave him anything. It was all hard work. Forty years into his career and he doesn't have to [now]. Richard works as hard as anyone.”

Jay-Alexander has a simple explanation for his non-stop drive: “I still love it.”

“I’m 64 years old. And I’ve earned opinions. I’m with Oprah when she says no apologies after 60. But I’m not jaded. That is the beauty of me. I’m not jaded. I’m really not. I still love it. Whether you go to rehearsal and you’re creative all day or you go to a theater at night and the lights get dark, the possibilities are still endless.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2017 at 10:17 AM with the headline "He’s worked with A-listers like Streisand. Now he’s ready to tell a few stories."