Sandy Wolshin, a cheerleader for the NFL Raiders for five years, decided one day to trade her pom-poms and hot pants for long skirts and Orthodox Judaism.She turned her life story into a hilarious two-act play, The Kosher Cheerleader, that takes theatergoers on a personal journey filled with wacky stories and lively song and dance.
Sandy plays herself, and she plays a medley of characters from her colorful life story, revealing fond memories of her castanet-playing gypsy mother, her Jewish borscht-belt-entertainer father, her five siblings, and a childhood-dream-come-true of being an NFL Raiderette.
The daughter of a Russian Orthodox mother and a “practicing Jewish atheist” father, Wolshin didn’t find her way to Orthodox Judaism until after her professional cheerleading career ended, but she says that her father’s religious background helped her bond with other Jewish cheerleaders during her time in the NFL.
"I want to cheer for something bigger than football," she says.“We would make jokes,” she recalled, “about our relatives saying, ‘Cheerleading, shmeerleading. The owner’s wife, that’s the job for a Jewish girl.’”
Our readers in sunny Arizona and Florida can see this show before it makes its way up north, with plans in process for a staging in New York this summer.
Now playing through January 24 at the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company in Phoenix, the show moves to the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on April 20 for a six day run.
Here is a preview of the show.
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