E

LIE HIRSCHFELD, the New York real estate developer, threw a 60^th birthday party at The Plaza and all his friends and fans came to celebrate.

Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers for 11 years, served as master of ceremonies of the program. He produced such shows as Passing Strange, Equus, Oleanna and Hair, on some of which he partnered with Hirschfeld.

"Best thing about Elie," Bernstein quipped, "is he thinks Fine & Shapiro is the best deli in New York."

Broadway performer and cabaret star Leslie Kritzer thrilled the crowd with her magnificent voice.

Theodore Bikel’s "colleague and lover," Tamar Brooks, accompanied him on the piano as he sang If I Were a Rich Man. Since 1967 he’s played Tevye 2,000 times, more often than any other actor.

Bikel, who also appeared in The Rothschilds, said, "They told me it was much harder writing a show about five rich Jews than a show about one poor milkman. That show is less known than Fiddler on the Roof. But then, what show isn’t less known than Fiddler?"

Hirschfeld introduced his new love, Dr. Sarah Schlesinger, Associate Professor of Clinical Investigation, and Clinical Director of the Laboratory of Cellular Immunology and Physiology at the Rockefeller University, New York.

"I’ve never been happier," he said. "Wait till you see what I’m planning for my 65^th!"