Kelly Bishop appeared in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ as Golde while her brother, T. Doyle Leverett, portrayed Tevye. ‘She had a glorious voice,’ a friend said.
Music Box Playhouse photo
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Kelly Bishop appeared as the Mother Abbess in ‘The Sound of Music,’ where she sang the show-stopping number ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain.’
Music Box Playhouse photo
Many people may remember the late Kelly Bishop as a music teacher, a Sunday School teacher, or that nice lady who helped with the Cub Scouts.
But to her friends from the theater community, she was a woman with an extraordinary gift.
“She had a glorious mezzo soprano voice,” Michael Gallagher of Wilkes-Barre said. “Her rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ from the musical ‘Carousel’ was one of the nicest I’ve ever heard. And she sang ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ as Mother Abbess in ‘The Sound of Music.’ I don’t think anyone else at Music Box has ever sung it so well.”
“She was in ‘Damn Yankees’ and a musical called ‘Baby’ and a murder musical called ‘Something’s Afoot’,” Gallagher reminisced.
But Bishop, who passed away at home on Sunday, was more than a performer. Forty years ago she co-founded the Music Box Dinner Playhouse in Swoyersville with her late brother, T. Doyle Leverett, and her husband, veterinarian Dr. Robert Bishop.
“What Kelly and Doc Bishop have given to this community, you cannot put a price on it,” Michele Stuart, president of the theater’s board of directors, said Tuesday.
“She never stopped loving the theater. She would come to shows whenever she was able,” said Dana Feigenblatt, who is directing Music Box’s December production of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Unfortunately, Kelly Bishop’s health in recent years did not permit her to attend many shows. But she enjoyed her husband’s devotion to the end, said Stuart, who recently stopped by the Bishop home with a gift of food, and saw “how Doc was taking care of her. The kind of love they had, most people can only dream about.”
At one time a professional performer in summer stock companies, Kelly Bishop also sang locally with the Robert Dale Chorale and the Northeastern Philharmonic Orchestra. At Music Box, she served several years as general manager and music director.
“She was the heart and soul of the place,” said Debbie Zehner of Kingston, a former president of the Music Box Players. “She and Doc were like the mom and pop, and they made us all a family. We always felt it was a privilege to work there, because everything was so professional.”
Chuckling a bit, Zehner recalled Kelly Bishop as a solver of problems.
“Once we were waltzing onstage, several couples,” Zehner said. “I don’t remember what the show was, but my heel got stuck in a hole in the floor. I could not move my foot. Kelly waltzed by and just gave my foot a whack! and out it came.”
Funeral services are planned for Saturday at Howell-Lussi Funeral Home Inc. in West Pittston. Bishop’s obituary appears on 5A.
