Dumped wife gets revenge with musical about divorce
Gary Buiso
January 19, 2014: The Sharks and the Jets have nothing on these exes.
Hot-shot Broadway producer Tony Ponturo’s “Bronx Bombers” opens Feb. 6, but ex-wife Ruthe isn’t pining away for him from the Upper East Side duplex they once shared.
She has a show of her own, “Til Divorce Do Us Part,” which begins previews the very next day.
“He’s probably surprised that I’m able to pull it off,” according to Ruthe, 64, who said she hasn’t spoken to Tony in more than a year. “I was never the one who had to raise money or anything.”
In 2011, Tony, 61, dumped her after 34 years of marriage for auburn-locked knockout Fran Kirmser, 42, his leggy producing partner.
“He was very open about it — he didn’t sneak around,” she noted.
But instead of being les misérable, Ruthe sold off the jewelry Tony gave her to finance a tell-all show then titled “Divorce — The Musical.” It debuted in September 2012 at the Triad Theatre on the Upper West Side and , in which Ruthe also starred, was such a success that she managed to raise $700,000 to take the show Off-Broadway to the DR2 Theatre in Union Square.
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