Pamela Isaacs - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Theatre

In 1987 Isaacs appeared in Conrack, a musical based on Pat Conroy's novel The River Is Wide, at AMAS Repertory Theater. The show is set in 1969 and recounts the adventures of Pat Conroy, a young white teacher who teaches black children on the remote South Carolina island of Yamacraw. Isaacs played Dr. Jackie Brooks, a black representative of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare who becomes romantically involved with Conroy. Stephen Holden in his review of the show for the New York Times said that Isaacs "brings a fine psychological precison [sic] to the role of Dr. Jackie Brooks."

In 1988 Isaacs replaced LaTonya Sue Welch, as Effie in Michael Bennett's production of Dreamgirls at An Evening Dinner Theater in Elmsford, New York. Alvin Klein of the New York Times said that "Isaacs is so fine as that replacement that one feels a strange sense of confused priorities."

In 1989 Isaacs played the title role of Kay Jones, a music-hall performer who wears several disguises, in the Goodspeed Opera House revival of the Gershwins' Oh, Kay!. The setting in the revival was moved from Long Island to Harlem and the production was given an all-black cast. Stephen Holden said in his review in the New York Times that "Pamela Isaacs has only to raise an eyebrow to strike sparks. Her brassy comic charisma recalls Patti LuPone

Patti LuPone

Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...

as Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center Theater production of Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...

."

In 1993 Isaacs performed a one-woman show at Center Stage in Baltimore, appearing as Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. J. Wynn Rousuck called Isaacs a "spellbinding performer" in the production and added "It's not that she attempts to impersonate [Billie Holiday]. That would probably be futile. Instead, Isaacs acts like Billie Holiday and sings like, well, Isaacs, who is a thrill to hear." "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill" was such a hit that Isaac's run was extended.

In 1995 Isaacs returned to Baltimore's Center Stage to play the leading role in a production of Kurt Weill's Happy End as Salvation Army worker Lilian Holiday. While in Baltimore for the Center Stage productions, Isaacs appeared in one episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street."

Tony Nomination in The Life

In 1997 Isaacs played Queen, a principled prostitute who wants a real home and a marriage, in the musical The Life
The Life (musical)
The Life is a musical with a book by David Newman, Ira Gasman and Cy Coleman, music by Coleman, and lyrics by Gasman.Based on an original idea by Gasman, the show explores the underbelly of Times Square's 42nd Street, inhabited by pimps and prostitutes, druggies and dealers, and runaways and street...

. The New York Times said that "Isaacs's voice has the suppleness of Lena Horne's and a purity that is never sabotaged by its range. It's an instrument to cause goose bumps of pleasure. She rivets attention from her first appearance until the ambitious finale. As sung by Ms. Isaacs, Queen has backbone that only a good score can express with such immediacy." Isaacs was nominated for the 1997 Tony

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

and Drama Desk Award

Drama Desk Award

The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

as Best Actress in a Musical for The Life
The Life (musical)
The Life is a musical with a book by David Newman, Ira Gasman and Cy Coleman, music by Coleman, and lyrics by Gasman.Based on an original idea by Gasman, the show explores the underbelly of Times Square's 42nd Street, inhabited by pimps and prostitutes, druggies and dealers, and runaways and street...

. Ben Brantley also praised Isaac's performance when the play opened in 1997. "Most of the ballads go to Ms. Isaacs, who has a husky, vibrato-shaded voice, somewhere between Tina Turner and Helen Morgan, which resonates affectingly with pain and longing," said Brantley. "She delivers absolutely everything (including some clunky sung recitative) with commanding sincerity and polish." The Life played for 466 performances on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

In 1999 Isaacs works a plastic-molding machine in the revival of Working based on Studs Terkel's identically titled book, a compilation of verbatim interviews with dozens of workers about their daily toils.

In 2001 Isaacs plays a Starbucks counter girl who keeps the yuppies waiting in Newyorkers. Isaacs' big number is No Hurry at All, "a bluesy solo powerfully sung and amusingly acted" said Bruce Weber in the New York Times. In 2001, Isaacs won an Obie Award

Obie Award

The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...

for her performance as the Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

barista

Barista

A barista is a person, usually a coffee-house employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks.- Application of the title :...

in the off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

play.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

In 2003 Isaacs won raves for her performance of Muzzie Van Hossmere, a madcap Manhattan cabaret singer and heiress with a zest for the high life and a glamorous penthouse, in the national tour of the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Thoroughly Modern Millie (musical)

Thoroughly Modern Millie is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan. Based on the 1967 film of the same name, Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, who comes to New York City to marry for...

. Donna Bailey-Thompson said of Isaac's performance at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut that "Pamela Isaacs almost stops the show when she wraps her powerful, throaty voice around an okay sound and transforms it into a throbbing paean to New York." D. Aviva Rothschild wrote of her performance: "Pamela Isaacs as Muzzy proved right from the get-go why she'd been a Tony nominee for The Life. Damn, her voice was thrilling!" Les Spindle wrote that "As bon-vivant millionaire Muzzy van Hossmere - a role created for Carol Channing - the vivacious Pamela Isaacs pulls off a tour-de-force triumph, bolstered by her lively new songs."

Isaacs has performed in Regional Theatre at Long Wharf Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Goodspeed Opera House.

Television

Isaacs appears as Dr. Josie Conklin on the daytime soap

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

and has guested on such series as Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

and Third Watch
Third Watch
Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....

.

Awards

Isaacs was nominated for the 1997 Tony and Drama Desk Award as Best Actress in a Musical for The Life.

In 2001, Isaacs won an Obie Award