Latest news with #Shankman
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why people with ADHD and autism fear stigma will get worse under Trump and RFK Jr.
As an angel investor, Peter Shankman has made millions investing in startups, yet it wasn't easy getting to the top of the ladder. He's also a person with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and as such still bears the psychological scars of navigating a society that punishes people who aren't neurotypical. 'Growing up, I spent my entire life being told I talked too much,' Shankman told Salon. 'My middle name was 'sit down, you're disrupting the class.' I scraped by in school and college through the skin of my teeth, and have spent the last 25 years in therapy trying to undo the damage that constantly being told I was broken my entire childhood did to me as an adult.' Despite starting five companies, selling three, and becoming quite successful, Shankman says 'not a day goes by where I don't believe that it's all bulls**t, and I'm a complete fraud.' While Shankman has put together a decent life for himself despite these stigmas, he is concerned that the policies being pushed by America's newly-elected leaders will make life even harder for neurodiverse people today than it was for him growing up. For every story of excellence in neurodiversity there are those that play into unflattering stereotypes — such as attorneys for alleged quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger considering introducing his autism into his defense. Systematic reviews in scientific journals repeatedly find that stigma against autistic people is prevalent and causes real-world harm, with one scholar concluding that policymakers who want to help neurodivergent people should start by 'identifying active ingredients of interventions, measuring reliable changes in behaviors and attitudes, and targeting structural stigma.' By contrast, President Donald Trump and his new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr., are stirring controversy among disabled people through executive orders targeting supposed initiatives related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. They are also slashing social programs like Medicare and the Department of Education, which many disabled people require for health care and other important social services. Kennedy has repeatedly mischaracterized autistic people by falsely claiming autism is caused by vaccines while attacking life-saving medications like antidepressants, insisting that instead force people with mental illness would benefit from 'healing' farms. 'How dare RFK Jr. punish people for being different, instead of helping them understand that their differences are what make them better?' Shankman said. 'It's the last thing we should be doing. 'You're different, and that's wrong' doesn't help people, doesn't help our country, and doesn't help us heal.'According to experts who specialize in autism, ADHD and other neurodiverse conditions, the traditional, and invariably reactionary, approach to neurodiversity embraced by the administration reinforces and exacerbates pre-existing stigmas that have long made life painful for neurodivergent individuals. These stigmas are not simply harmful — they are also unscientific. 'Scientific evidence shows these conditions are not 'threats' but rather neurological differences that can lead to positive outcomes when given appropriate support,' Dr. Eliza Barach, a cognitive psychologist and ADHD coach and consultant, told Salon, adding that ADHD is one of the most easily treatable conditions in the DSM-5, the handbook for diagnosing psychological conditions approved by the American Psychiatric Association. 'While individuals with ADHD/autism face unique challenges, they can thrive when their traits are properly understood and supported,' Barach added. 'The true threat is in failing to recognize and support neurodivergent folks,' especially as the scientific community moves toward viewing autism, ADHD and similar conditions as natural variations in human brain development. This means, inevitably, moving away from lenses that depict neurodivergent conditions as pathologies. 'A 'clinical' diagnosis typically occurs when someone experiences significant difficulties functioning in environments designed for neurotypical minds,' Barach said. 'Research has revealed that these neurotypes often come with distinct strengths, including exceptional pattern recognition, hyperfocus abilities, creative problem-solving, and innovative thinking.' By contrast, the reactionary approach to neurodivergent conditions seems destined to increase prejudices which downplay or ignore these nuances. This strategy highlights so-called 'weaknesses' that (quite often) are nothing more than manifestations of societal intolerance. Dr. Monique Botha, a professor of psychology at Durham University, argued that people who advocate cutting services for neurodivergent people and removing legal protections usually doubt or deny the underlying reality of those disabilities. 'Autism and ADHD are heritable disabilities, and both communities do not pose a threat to anyone by virtue of being autistic or having ADHD,' Botha told Salon. 'It is a group of people, however, who have been demonized and stigmatized, and RFK is clearly choosing to endorse some of the most reckless and negative beliefs about the group because they do not have easily recognizable disabilities. This means that it's a group where it's easier to doubt the veracity of the claims about disability, in favor of a narrative of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and 'getting over it.'' Botha explained that there is already extensive evidence demonstrating that by and large anti-depressants and ADHD medications are safe, that access to medication for ADHD can prevent early mortality for diagnosed patients and that vaccines do not cause autism. In fact, molecular biologists believe that neurodivergent conditions arise due to a combination of heritable and environmental factors. 'We are coming to terms with the wide variation amongst autistic people, the fact that more than white boys can be autistic,' Botha said. 'To pretend that we've been held back by a lack of funding on biological research ignores the reality of the vast majority going on it (as per actual research on this topic) and it ignores that autistic people and their families couldn't often care about the biology of it all — they want access to evidence-based care and support, both of which are drastically underfunded.' In addition to studying autism and ADHD, Barach has ADHD and Botha has both conditions. Each of them reflected on how the new government's philosophy toward neurodiversity intersects with their own lived experiences. 'My own research tackles the disparities facing neurodivergent people,' Botha told Salon. 'Both disabilities run in my family. I've worked with teams in the U.S. and attend a big autism conference that is most years, held in the U.S.' Instead of being able to tout her country as a forerunner in research or practice, the anti-science resurgence has forced Botha to ask whether it is even safe to attend American conferences. 'Personally, as someone who is both a researcher, and neurodivergent, I also wonder about it,' Botha said. She observed that autistic people are an easy group to stigmatize, and 'are more likely to have negative judgments made about them based on small interactions.' Barach, who has a PhD in psychology, told Salon that the revival of anti-ADHD stigmas has caused her and other patients with ADHD to feel as if they must 'mask' their behavior in public. 'Myself and my clients have often walked through life hiding and masking our neurodivergence in order to fit in and avoid exclusion and judgment,' Barach said. 'It's exhausting to wear a mask all the time and be told that who you are is not enough — that you need to fundamentally change in order to be accepted. While it's understandable to make modifications to behavior to promote success, it's entirely different when we're asking people to modify their entire being and self, instead of offering environmental accommodations in conjunction with behavioral adaptations.' Becca Lory Hector, an autistic speaker and researcher and author of "Always Bring Your Sunglasses,' told Salon that her work bringing belonging and equality to the lives of neurodivergent individuals has been directly undermined by Kennedy's efforts. 'I've seen how rhetoric like this leads to harmful policies, whether in education, employment, or healthcare, where support is cut, services are denied, and Autistic people are further marginalized,' Hector said. 'His statement isn't just offensive; it's a call to action for those of us fighting for the right to exist without being treated as a threat.' Sol Smith coaches people with both autism and ADHD, running support groups for them and is the author of the upcoming book 'Autistic's Guide to Self- Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult.' He said that the current culture of contempt for autistic individuals directly and negatively impacts their lives. 'My whole job is to increase the public's education about autism and ADHD, to reduce stigma, and to help autistics and ADHDers find themselves in this society,' Smith said. 'How ADHDers and autistics feel about themselves is downright awful; they've lost touch with themselves as they've tried to hide in a society not made for them. They struggle with the very social constructs that define our culture — and that's without politicians suggesting they be wiped out as some kind of internal threat.' IngerShaye Colzie, an ADHD executive leadership coach and founder of the ADHD Black Professionals Alliance, observed that as a Black woman with ADHD, she knows that prejudices against people with disabilities can easily intersect with other forms of bigotry, including racism and misogyny. 'For years, I internalized the idea that my brain was 'wrong' and that I had to work twice as hard, overcompensate and mask my symptoms to be taken seriously in professional spaces,' Colzie said. 'This led to burnout, imposter syndrome, and deep self-doubt.' People already held her to a higher standard because of her race and sex; when her ADHD caused her to struggle with basic organization and time management, people wrote her off as lazy and unprofessional regardless of the creative solutions she brought to the table. 'I found myself in a confusing situation where my ideas were celebrated, still my work style was criticized, leaving me feeling simultaneously valued and deeply flawed until I finally understood what was really going on,' Colzie said. 'Masking is exhausting. It means constantly monitoring yourself, trying to fit into a world that wasn't built for you, and hiding your struggles, even when it's costing you your mental and physical health.' If America wants to help its neurodivergent citizens, advocates like Smith believe they need to accept that the disabilities are social, not medical — that is, 'we are disabled by our social climate and the expectations that we will think and work in the same ways that neurotypicals do.' Instead of encouraging society to broaden its perspective about acceptable behavior, Smith believes the current trend is to move in the opposite direction, with 'people kindling our ancient fears is a powerful political move that distracts us from real social reforms that we should be addressing.' This is in stark contrast to the RFK Jr. approach. 'Why the hell is a non-doctor unilaterally deciding to rip this lifeline away from people who rely on it to thrive?' Shankman asked. 'It's mind-boggling, reckless and if enacted, will devastate countless lives — many of whom will never fully recover.'
CBS News
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
New Boston production of "Funny Girl" is an emotional love letter to theater
BOSTON - "Funny Girl" helped secure Barbra Streisand's stardom. Now, a new production of the recent Broadway hit is in Boston, and a new actress is taking on one of the most demanding roles in musical theater. "I've stripped away kind of the expectations of the industry and what people expect because of Barbra, " says Hannah Shankman. She's portraying Fanny Brice, who, in the play, became an unlikely star in the early 1900s, headlining the Ziegfield Follies. "It's an out-of-body experience being able to step into her shoes and to sing Julie Stein's incredible, incredible score," Shankman tells WBZ-TV. A love letter to theater Streisand's "Funny Girl" had its out-of-town try-out at the Shubert Theatre in Boston before the production moved to Broadway. Once in New York, a young Melissa Manchester was in the audience. She grew up to be a Grammy-award-winning singer and songwriter, who is now playing Rose Brice, Fanny's mother. "The tonality of how it's written is so spectacular and familiar to me on a cellular level. Everybody takes an emotional journey, which was not true in the original '64 production," Manchester says. Shankman explains, "It's also really about a woman finding her place and her strength and her life through love of her husband, through love of herself, through love from her mother. She really finds and grows up to be this woman, who is exactly who she always wanted to be." Beloved songs like "Don't Rain on My Parade" are well known, but seeing them performed on stage transforms the experience. Manchester says, "For the audience to hear a very, very well-known American standard within the context of its original place, which is sung by a character within a scene. That is so moving on such a deep level for the audience." "It's lovely here too because you can actually see some of the people in the audience," Shankman explains. "It's absolutely breathtaking. It's truly wonderful to do a show that is a love letter to the theater in what feels like a theater it belongs in, and the opera house is really that." Still resonating with audiences While the story takes place in the early 20th century and was written in the 1960s, the actors say it still resonates. Manchester says, "Like the magic of all art, it has grown into this moment." "I always say that I want people to leave feeling empowered…The show grapples with so many different emotional states from so many different characters in the show, and in the end, we really see Fanny harness her own strength and power, and I hope that empowers other people to do the same in their lives," Shankman told WBZ-TV. You can see "Funny Girl" at the Citizen's Opera House through February 16th.
Boston Globe
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Funny Girl' proves it's adaptable after all
Layers of myth began to accumulate around 'Funny Girl' as years, then decades, passed without a Broadway revival — almost unheard of for a show that popular. It took an astonishing 58 years for a 'Funny Girl' revival to land on Broadway. Advertisement Along the way, plenty of other actors got to put their stamp on roles originated by legends, from Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois ('A Streetcar Named Desire'), to Tevye ('Fiddler on the Roof'), Momma Rose ('Gypsy'), Willy Loman ('Death of a Salesman'), and Dolly Levi ('Hello, Dolly!') But Streisand owned the role of Fanny Brice. It's worth noting, however, that even as an enormously gifted young performer, she didn't always bring her 'A' game to the task. In 'The Season,' William Goldman's classic chronology of a year on Broadway, he describes a performance of 'Funny Girl' where Streisand 'mugged like Jerry Lewis, and except when she was singing, sounded like him.' 'She was dying of boredom and very clearly didn't care about her performance, and it very clearly didn't matter to the audience, who loved her,' Goldman wrote. Shankman's approach at the Opera House is anything but blasé. A belter par excellence, she delivers the kind of full-throttle performance that captures Fanny's outsize personality. In the show's Act One closer, 'Don't Rain on My Parade,' Shankman virtually rattles the theater's rafters. But she also sharply delineates the differences between Fanny onstage and Fanny offstage. Professionally, nothing fazes Fanny, communicated early in the show by her cocky 'I'm the Greatest Star.' Personally, it's another matter, and Shankman expertly dials it down in scenes of emotional anguish. Advertisement Stephen Mark Lukas in "Funny Girl." Matthew Murphy Most of that is brought about by Nick Arnstein, Fanny's lover, then husband (played by the impossibly suave Omar Sharif in the movie.) Stephen Mark Lukas acquits himself well as Nick; it's a convincing portrayal of a carefree gambler and playboy who entrances Fanny, and, then, later, of a desperate man whose every financial decision just accelerates his downward spiral. (Fanny's nonchalant reaction to Nick's loss of $68,000 does not ring true.) Director Michael Mayer shows a facility with the old-fashioned material that you wouldn't necessarily expect from the guy who helmed 'Spring Awakening' and 'American Idiot' on Broadway. As Eddie Ryan, a dancer who becomes Fanny's confidant, Izaiah Montaque Harris brings a lively spark to the production whenever he is onstage, including his execution of a show-stopping tap number choreographed by But the musical's limitations are fully evident as well. Some of the songs by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) are gems; others are not. Harvey Fierstein was enlisted to punch up the book (i.e. script) by Isobel Lennart, but it remains creaky, a weak point in 'Funny Girl.' Too much stage time is afforded Fanny's mother ( Content warning: Attending 'Funny Girl' means you'll have to listen to 'People.' Shankman sings it about as well as it can be sung, but you'll still be subjected to lyrics like 'People who need people/Are the luckiest people in the world.' They would be luckier still if that song was excised from the score. Advertisement FUNNY GIRL Music by Jule Styne. Lyrics by Bob Merrill. Book by Isobel Lennart. Revised book by Harvey Fierstein. Choreography by Ellenore Scott. Tap choreography by Ayodele Casel. Directed by Michael Mayer. Presented by Broadway In Boston. At Citizens Opera House, Boston. Through Feb. 16. Tickets start at $40. Don Aucoin can be reached at
Boston Globe
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Funny Girl,' and its impossible lead role, head to Boston
Advertisement Hannah Shankman is now portraying Fanny on the national tour of 'Funny Girl,' which arrives at the Citizens Opera House from February 4-16, presented by Broadway in Boston. The actress says she can relate to the immense pressure of carrying the iconic show and trying to step into Streisand's shoes. She remembers watching the movie with her sister many times as a kid, so the part has always been a 'bucket list dream.' 'It really is the role of a lifetime, and Barbra made it that. She allowed for the legacy,' Shankman said in a Zoom interview from a tour stop in Florida. For Fanny, Shankman said, 'You have to find someone who can play both young and play mature…someone who can be funny and wear their heart on their sleeve. But because Barbra did it so well, it felt daunting to try to find someone to live up to it.' Just ask Beanie Feldstein, who headlined the 2022 Broadway revival, before being abruptly shunted aside for 'Spring Awakening' and 'Glee' star Lea Michele. The casting switcheroo was high drama, and both actresses were targets for vicious online commentary. Slings and arrows aside, Fanny Brice is one of the most demanding in the musical theater canon. Fanny is onstage nearly the entire time, sings 16 songs. and has almost two dozen costume changes. The score, by composer Jule Style and lyricist Bob Merrill, is wide-ranging and boasts such classics as 'People,' 'If a Girl Isn't Pretty,' 'I'm the Greatest Star,' 'His Love Makes Me Beautiful,' and the epic 'Don't Rain on My Parade.' Many of the tunes were tailored specifically to Streisand's inimitable voice. Advertisement The story, which takes liberties with Brice's real life, follows her rise from modest means, as the daughter of a widowed saloon-keeper mother, to becoming a headliner in the 'Ziegfeld Follies.' Despite her mother's hopes to find her a husband, the quick-witted Fanny is determined to become a stage star and pushes past obstacles and opposition to achieve her dream. Along the way, she falls in love with inveterate gambler and con man Nick Arnstein, and their tumultuous love affair (and later marriage) provides the backbone for most of the second act. Shankman had some experience with the role before this tour. She played Fanny in a regional production of 'Funny Girl' in Missouri in 2016 for about a dozen performances. 'It was just a little taste, and I was like, 'Wow, what I wouldn't give to have more time to flesh this out, discover new things, really dig my teeth in,'' Shankman said. When the national tour launched in 2023, Shankman was the Fanny Brice standby for a year before taking over the role full-time in September. She said that director Michael Mayer and the creative team encouraged her to make the character her own and 'to bring my own tools and skills and humor to the table.' Fanny's upbringing is familiar terrain for Shankman. She, too, grew up in a Jewish family in New York and had an affinity for the stage from a young age. 'My parents are both actors, so I was around the theater from the time I was about 2. My mom went into labor with me while my dad was doing a show. It's always been in me, just like it's always been in Fanny.' Advertisement She also relates to the character's 'chutzpah,' her feisty and headstrong personality and her seemingly improbable dreams of stardom. 'She uses humor as a way to connect with people. She goes after what she wants and doesn't take no for an answer or stop believing in herself,' Shankman says. 'That's kind of been my trajectory in life, too. Fanny was told she couldn't be in the theater because of the way she looked, and when I auditioned for college programs for musical theater, I got rejected from all of them.' When producers first approached director Michael Mayer ('Spring Awakening,' 'A Beautiful Noise') about helming 'Funny Girl,' he was intrigued. His grandparents were big Fanny Brice fans, and he would listen to her recordings with them. As an 8-year-old on vacation with his family in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, they went to see 'Funny Girl' on a rainy day. 'I remember my mother was transfixed by Barbra Streisand,' he says via Zoom. 'Fanny was really a force to be reckoned with, and Jule Styne and Bob Merrill really captured that drive brilliantly with these songs.' Hannah Shankman and Stephen Mark Lukas (Nick) in "Funny Girl." Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade Still, Mayer felt Isobel Lennart's original book needed some reshaping, though he adds there was much to admire, too. He suggested to producers that they hire theater icon Harvey Fierstein ('Kinky Boots,' 'La Cage aux Folles') to freshen up the second act and to sharpen the focus on Fanny's tumultuous marriage to Nick Arnstein. 'We have to hear more from Nick,' Mayer said. 'Otherwise, it basically becomes a Fanny Brice concert.' Advertisement Mayer and Fierstein went back into the 'Funny Girl' archives and added in two songs for Nick that had been discarded from the original—'You're a Funny Girl,' which comes when Fanny secretly fronts the capital for Nick to become a partner at a talent agency, and 'Temporary Arrangement,' when he enters into some bad business deals with Fanny's money. Fierstein rejiggered and restructured the script in the second act and added a comic monologue for the pioneering Fanny. 'I thought there were lots of things that we could adjust and make it feel slightly more contemporary,' Mayer said. 'We've worked very hard to transcend some of the old-fashioned clunkiness that is baked into a lot of musicals from the 1960s.' Grammy award winning singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester ('Midnight Blue,' 'Don't Cry Out Loud') plays Mrs. Brice in the tour. As a young girl growing up in the Bronx, Manchester saw the original production with Streisand. Later, at the height of Manchester's pop career in the 1980s, she says Styne reached out to see if she'd be interested in doing 'Funny Girl,' but she turned it down. 'At that point, Streisand's aura was still too bright,' she said. But when this current tour was announced, she went after the role of Fanny's tough-yet-supportive mother Mrs. Brice. 'I insisted to my manager that I at least get an audition,' she said. 'This show has always been part of the musical landscape of my life.' Manchester says it's important not to perform the show through contemporary eyes. In the early 1900s, 'there was no language for codependency, gambling addiction or psychology. Everybody was just stumbling in the dark, struggling to get by and hoping for the best.' Advertisement In the second act, the conflict with Nick takes center stage, with their dynamic shifting as his gambling spirals out of control and Fanny finds fame and fortune. 'I think that felt very emasculating for Nick, and it really took a toll on their relationship,' Shankman says. 'They go from this lustful and passionate romance, where they put each other on pedestals, to a tumultuous disconnect.' Ultimately, Fanny 'is someone who just wants to be loved and give love, and she sees the best in people,' Shankman says. 'It may be a flaw, but she loves herself regardless of her flaws. I think that's a lesson that takes her time to learn and it's a great reminder for all of us.' FUNNY GIRL Presented by Broadway in Boston. At: The Citizens Opera House, February 4-16. Tickets: from $40.
