Tovah Feldshuh plays Golda Meir at the Phil

COURTESY PHOTO Tovah Feldshuh in "Golda's Balcony." It takes a strong actress to play a formidable, historic person such as Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel.

But Tovah Feldshuh welcomed the challenge.

As she likes to say, she's played many Jewish mothers, but never the head of a state.

She's portrayed Golda Meir in "Golda's Balcony," a one-woman show, since 2003, first off-Broadway, at the Manhattan Ensemble Theatre, then on Broadway

starting that fall. Her performance garnered Ms. Feldshuh a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Play.

With 493 performances she also broke the record for having the longest onewoman show in the history of Broadway. (Lily Tomlin in "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" previously held the record, with 391 performances.)

Then in the summer of 2008, Ms. Feldshuh had a London run for eight weeks, playing in the West End.

On Sunday, Feb. 15, she'll reprise her role at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples. (Tickets are $64.)

FELDSHUH "It absolutely resonates with me, it's a wonderful part," Ms. Feldshuh exclaims. "I believe that the story needs to be told."

You may know the actress from the movie "Kissing Jessica Stein," for which she received the Golden Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress, or for her role as defense attorney Danielle Melnick in "Law & Order," for which she was nominated for her second Emmy.

On the big screen, she's also been in "A Walk on the Moon," "Lady in the Water" and "The Idolmaker." On TV, she starred opposite James Wood in "Citizen Cohen," Richard Dreyfus in "The Education of Max Bickford" and Bill Cosby in "The Cosby Mysteries."

The richness and difficulty of playing Golda Meir appealed to her, she says, and the fact that she bears very little physical resemblance to the historic figure. But with the help of a fat suit, wig, make-up, and excellent acting, she transforms into Israel's former primer minister.

"I feel very fortunate to have been chosen to play the role, to have been offered the role, and I grabbed it," she says.

COURTESY PHOTO "Golda's Balcony" is on stage at the Naples Philharmonic Sunday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. An additional appeal was the fact the play was written by Tony Award-winning playwright William Gibson, known for "The Miracle Worker," about Helen Keller, and "Two for the Seesaw."

"It was a great honor to work with him," Ms. Feldshuh says, calling him "a great American playwright." (Mr. Gibson died last year on Nov. 25, at the age of 94.)

A friend had urged her to see the show when it was playing in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, saying, "It's got your name written all over it."

But Ms. Feldshuh, who was performing at Tanglewood, couldn't get to see it. She told her manager to look into it.

"She tracked it down, and she bought me back an offer," she says. "And I read the piece and said, 'This looks difficult but interesting.'"

The showed opened off-Broadway at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater in Soho.

"It was very chic, very hip, and very cool, and very small scale," Ms. Feldshuh says. "So to be honest with you, I wasn't frightened, though the stakes were higher artistically. I'd been up in front of the New York critics for 35 years of my Broadway life. I had a great director, Scott Schwartz, a very interesting script, and I just buried myself inside the tunnel of researching her, and then I went forth."

The show was so successful, it moved to the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway, where, after 14 days of previews, it opened on Oct. 15, 2003.

Ms. Feldshuh, who's passionate about her craft, watched films of Golda Meir talking, in order to learn her speech patterns, as well as those of others she impersonates in the show, such as King Abdullah of Jordan and Henry Kissinger.

For the off-Broadway show, she traveled to Milwaukee and Denver, where Golda Meir had lived, to do research. To prepare for the Broadway show, she returned to those cities, and then went to Israel.

This past summer, she went to Ukraine to do research for her next Broadway show, "Irena's Vow," which opens in March. She took a side trip to Kiev, to visit the synagogue Golda Meir went to, and her apartment.

"It's like being a good journalist," she says. "You do what's required to contribute at your highest level or you don't. Or you don't. And you get to live with that. I can't live with that. I literally can't live with that."

Ms. Feldshuh also played "Golda's Balcony" at the Shaw Theatre in London for eight weeks. She continues to perform the piece around the country. She's also created a concert, "Mining Golda: My Journey to Golda Meir," which she performed at the West End, Leeds, and Manchester in England, as well as in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Sydney, Australia. And she made "The Journey to Golda's Balcony," a DVD of her behindthe scenes preparation, as well as interviews with people who were in Golda Meir's life.

"Golda's Balcony" follows Golda Meir's life, a Russian immigrant who moved to the United States, was a schoolteacher, married, and had children, then became Israel's fourth prime minister. It focuses on the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on their holiest of days.

During that time, Golda Meir had to decide whether she would arm planes with nuclear warheads and use them in retaliation.

Backstage, Ms. Feldshuh used to paper the walls of the Helen Hayes Theatre with photos of American soldiers killed in Iraq.

"Before I'd go on, I'd see those boys," she says. "Because Golda Meir used to say, 'Wake me day or night if I lose a boy.' Imagine such a thing! It makes me cry when I say it. She was a mother, it was like you or I being head of state. It's so wild. I'm not saying she wasn't capable. She did the very best she could. And she did walk the walk, and I take my hat off to her."

Golda Meir, she says, owned few dresses and didn't bother with fashion. She was a chain smoker.

"She was immaculately clean," Ms. Feldshuh says. "She did care about her hair, oddly enough. It's very funny. She looks unkempt, but I'm sure she ran several combs through that mop of hair. And the most interesting thing about her is that eros and power are almost irresistible. She had love interests!

"She had integrity. She broke up her marriage, but she had lovers. Wild, eh? Thank you baby! I thought that was the greatest ting since French toast. I couldn't believe it. None of us could believe it. But there it is. God bless Mr. Gibson.

"This is no x-rated show, but I think it's very interesting that God is in the details, that this marvelous playwright went to the trouble of doing this intricate work about her personality and how it juxtaposes itself with history.

"History is not somewhere over there for Golda. It exists as her third leg, going up through the center of her body. It's just so personal."

And you get the feeling it's the same for Ms. Feldshuh.

Playing Golda Meir, she says, "is the greatest role of my career to date. Golda did her damnedest to help give birth to the state of Israel, a postage stamp where Jews would live in peace. And she walked the walk."

if you go

"Golda's Balcony," a one-woman show starring Tovah Feldshuh >>When: 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15 >>Where: The Philharmonic Center for the Arts, 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples >>Cost: $64 >>Information: Call (239) 597-1900.