Over a decade ago, I saw a superb Broadway show called Golda’s Balcony, a one-woman play about the life of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. I also got to meet the play’s star, the incomparable Tovah Feldshuh, who was warm and chatty when my friend and I visited her backstage. We got to call upon Feldshuh because my friend worked with her husband, Andrew H. Levy, a prominent real estate lawyer in New York (currently senior counsel at DLA Piper, at the time a partner at Gibson Dunn).
People who work in the real estate business always have the most fabulous places, don’t they? The New York Times recently visited Feldshuh and Levy in their magnificent home overlooking Central Park:
Tovah Feldshuh knew that she and her Upper West Side apartment were meant for each other when she walked into the living room for the first time and saw the squares in the fireplace surround. They were the same green as her beloved marble-topped dining room table.
But even before factoring in the green tiles, it was pretty clear that this apartment was the apartment: After all, the view from the living room and the master bedroom wasn’t just a full-on embrace of Central Park; crucially it took in the reservoir and Central Park lake as well.
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The views are stunning, and Feldshuh and Levy have decorated the apartment beautifully as well (as you can see in the NYT slideshow). And I was delighted to learn about the unusual origins of some of the decor:
Fourteen years ago, Ms. Feldshuh got a call from her friend Barbra Streisand, who then lived down the street at the Ardsley. “She’s been very kind to me my whole artistic life,” Ms. Feldshuh said. “She told me, ‘Tovah, I’m moving out of my apartment. Do you want some of my junk?’ ”
She continued: “And I said, ‘Junk? Barbra, don’t go anywhere. I’m bringing the truck.’ I went to her apartment. There was a huge pile of stuff and Barbra wasn’t there, but her secretary said, ‘Take what you want.’ ”
Of course, Ms. Feldshuh didn’t want to be greedy, but an opportunity was an opportunity. She came away with, among other treasures, two white china planters, a crimson silk shower curtain that hangs in the maid’s bathroom, a pair of Donna Karan high-tops — “I said, ‘Barbra, if I wear these shoes, will I sing better?’ ” — and a few crystal champagne and wine glasses that are used on special occasions.
“But I’m very careful with them,” Ms. Feldshuh said. “They’re prizes to me.”
And they’re prizes to gay men all across America. Tovah, if you ever tire of that booty from Babs, please drop me a line.
So how much is this elegant apartment worth? And what does the floor plan look like?