I’ve heard Johnny Mercer’s lyrics sung hundreds of times by countless performers, but somehow, hearing Charles Busch illustrate and sing those words made me hear them—and feel them—in an entirely different way last night during his show “Charles Busch Sings Johnny Mercer” at 54 Below.

I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised by my reaction to his performance. Actor and playwright Charles Busch is a master of theatrical melodrama, and I’ve long been a fan of his Facebook posts, where he has a remarkable way of describing the ordinary details of everyday life with imagination and wit. He makes the familiar feel newly personal. His song list last night was musically challenging, and opening with the Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer classic “Skylark” immediately drew us into the intimate world of Charles.

When Charles spotted Eda and me sitting with Michele Lee, he shared an emotional story about 9/11. Michele, a close friend of Charles’s, had starred in his play The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, which was playing on Broadway during those terrible days. His story brought a deeply personal moment to an evening filled with music, memories, and laughter.

We heard so many of our favorite Johnny Mercer songs last night—“Charade,” “Moon River,” “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” “Blues in the Night,” “I’m Old Fashioned,” and others. But there is one song, written by Peter Allen, that best sums up the evening for me: “Everything Old Is New Again”…especially in the hands of Charles Busch!

Jono Mainelli music director provided the perfect accompaniment for Charles, his classical pianist’s touch added the appropriate musical  backdrop to the evening.  Ashley Austin Morris a very funny comic was a wonderful interlude and guitarist Jimmy Stull were guest artists.

EDA SOROKOFF & MICHELE LEE

CHARLES BUSCH

CHARLES BUSCH

JONO MAINELLI & CHARLES BUSCH

CHARLES BUSCH

CHARLES BUSCH

JONO MAINELLI & CHARLES BUSCH

JONO MAINELLI & CHARLES BUSCH

CHARLES BUSCH

ASHLEY AUSTIN MORRIS

JIMMY STULL

CHARLES BUSH & STEPHEN SOROKOFF

JONO MAINELLI, ASHLEY AUSTIN MORRIS, CHARLES BUSCH, JIMMY STULL

CHARLES BUSCH, MICHELLE LEE, EDA SOROKOFF

MICHELE LEE & EDA SOROKOFF

LIVESTREAM

MANDISA BOXILL

Under the scaffolding a fantasy blooms upon summer’s edge as the ladies at the helm of One Art Space bring Hunt Slonem and his colony of rabbits quite literally home to 23 Warren. The arc of Slonem’s career itself is a masterworking of the American dream and this, his “Through The Looking Glass” exhibition, is an ebullient celebration that insists upon deliberate optimism, despite life’s grim particulars.

Renaissance of whimsy: Hunt Slonem at One Art Space

Unique Glass Bunny 2026. Courtesy Hunt Slonem

If NYC (battered, resilient, always game for wonder) is the looking glass, then the reflection here is sunny and, despite the state of the nation at large, spot on with whimsy.

The artist held court on September 10, 2026

Hunt Slonem at One Art Space

Here Hunt takes his ubiquitous bunnies, created with singular frolicking strokes that lop themselves onto an array of colored canvases and sends them multiplied throughout One Art’s bright expanse.

Oval Bunny 2026 oil on wood. Courtesy Hunt Slonem

Hunt Slonem at One Art Space

It’s a much larger experience of Slonem than when we shared gallery space at DTR last year. Now, the bunnies have birthed themselves into twisty glass and bright neon. They shimmer in huge lenticular display. At the far end of the exhibition a towering tea cake of bright pastel lurched stoically, Carroll-like and bunny festooned, natch.

Hunt Slonem at One Art Space

Producer Jamie de Roy

The artist, himself resplendent in a verdant green-patterned blazer, chatted amicably among book signing with press, collectors and fans. One Art Space always puts together a top class affair, and the passed small bites were equally creative. Guests sampled from a clever arancini set with tops cut off, revealing its nest of bedfellows marinara and mozzarella, as well as tiny rafts of thinly sliced rare roast beef on artisanal crackers, tuna tartare and heady truffles cuddled with Voleggio cheese in a tender vol au vent.

Hunt Slonem at One Art Space

Hunt Slonem at One Art Space

I couldn’t stay for cake, Manhattanites have just returned from their far-flung summer places and the season has started on steroids. However I trust that, just like Slonem’s hare harem, it too was an airy delight of soft fluff and — upon reflection — just what our collective needs.

There are moments during New York Fashion Week when the clothes are the story. On Thursday night at the Léman Ballroom, the larger story was the people wearing them—and the culture they had gathered to celebrate.

I Love Jewish Girls, founded by Mexican-Jewish artist Alejandro Glatt, arrived in Manhattan as the first runway during New York Fashion Week devoted specifically to Jewish identity, bringing together 18 designers for an evening of fashion, music, art and unapologetic Jewish pride. The number itself was intentional: 18 corresponds to chai, the Hebrew word for “life,” a particularly resonant choice for a celebration taking place just before Rosh Hashanah. The event’s own materials billed it as “the first Jewish runway in New York Fashion Week history.”

Magdaline M. Delany, Alejandro Glatt

Inside the magnificent Léman Ballroom at 41 Broad Street, with its soaring columns, murals and old-world grandeur, the effect was almost ceremonial. The room was filled with designers, models, press and members of New York’s Jewish community gathered not merely to watch clothes walk down a runway, but to see Jewish identity occupy a highly visible space within Fashion Week. And that mattered.

At a moment when Jewish identity has increasingly become something people are expected to explain, defend or qualify, Glatt created a room in which nobody needed to explain anything. His own description of the project is strikingly simple: Jewish fashion existed everywhere, he says, but “belonged nowhere,” so he decided to build the room himself.

Broadway star and internationally renowned cantor Dudu Fisher opened the evening with Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, and returned to close the runway with Jerusalem of Gold. Fisher, who famously portrayed Jean Valjean in Les Misérables on Broadway and in London’s West End while observing Shabbat, gave the evening a connection between Jewish tradition and theatrical New York that felt particularly appropriate.

Miss Universe Israel 2026 Danielle Yablonka

Miss Universe Israel 2026 Danielle Yablonka also appeared during the evening, delivering a speech centered on Jewish pride.

A Shani design. Artist and designer Elizabeth Sutton

Artist and designer Elizabeth Sutton opened the runway in a dramatic gown and coordinating headpiece by Shani Dress, immediately establishing that subtlety was not necessarily going to be the evening’s governing principle.

Tobi Rubinstein

The 18 participating houses represented a broad interpretation of Jewish fashion rather than a single aesthetic. Israeli haute couture appeared alongside modest fashion, streetwear, bridal, accessories and contemporary labels. The announced lineup included Yaron Minkowski, Aviad Arik Herman, Shani Dress, Mikael Aghal, Miriya Love, Tribe True Tradition, CVRGE NY, Shalosh, Sad Girl Ranch, ReeFinedYou, Natalie’s Fashion House, NoaLim, Nelly’s List, Hatikvah Sticker Collective, Tomer Peretz, Glatt and Zionist AF by Anya Farber.

Shani taking a bow

With 18 designers, however, came a lot of fashion. Not all of it worked. Much of the evening emphasized modest dressing, with necklines rising and hemlines falling. There is absolutely nothing inherently limiting about modest fashion; restriction can actually force a designer to become more imaginative. If skin isn’t providing the drama, silhouette, construction, fabric, proportion and detail have to do the work. Some designers understood that better than others.

There were looks with genuine presence, interesting fabrics and strong craftsmanship. Others became so engulfed in fabric, ornamentation or concept that the woman underneath nearly disappeared.

One particularly elaborate creation looked as though its wearer might have wrapped herself in the entire Torah.

Another explosion of yellow, feather-like texture immediately brought Tweety Bird to mind. Fashion criticism occasionally writes itself.

Fern Mallis

Sitting nearby were two women who know something about New York fashion and publishing: Fashion Week legend Fern Mallis, publisher Vicki Schneps, The Cougar Matchmaker Rachel Brown, Dr Sal. The running commentary around us occasionally became nearly as entertaining as the runway itself.

Dr Sal and Vickie Schneps

But underneath the humor was a serious point. Modesty should be a design challenge, not a design excuse. The best modest fashion understands that covering the body does not require hiding the person. It can create mystery, elegance, sensuality and extraordinary sophistication. A beautifully constructed sleeve can be sexier than a bare arm. A long skirt can create more movement than a mini. A high neckline can frame a face spectacularly. Fashion begins when a designer takes those limitations and turns them into possibility.

That was not always accomplished Thursday night. Yet judging I Love Jewish Girls solely as a collection would also miss what Glatt was attempting. The evening grew from a project that began almost playfully with the words “I Love Jewish Girls” printed on a T-shirt. Glatt subsequently brought the concept to Miami Swim Week, where an all-Jewish swimwear runway was staged earlier this year. New York represented the next and considerably more ambitious step.

This time the statement was impossible to miss. Jewish designers were not being asked to remove their Jewishness from the room in order to participate in fashion. Israeli designers weren’t there despite being Israeli. Religious women weren’t being asked to abandon modesty to belong on a runway. Jewishness itself was part of the aesthetic conversation. That is what made the evening historic.

The fashion ranged from beautiful to bewildering, as fashion should. Eighteen designers should not produce eighteen versions of the same woman, and a runway devoted to Jewish identity certainly shouldn’t suggest there is only one way for a Jewish woman to look.

Some of Thursday night’s clothes I would happily admire. Others you would have to kill me to get me into, but I Love Jewish Girls ultimately accomplished something more important than producing a universally beautiful collection. For one long, exuberant evening in Lower Manhattan, Jewish designers, artists and women were not asking for permission to belong at Fashion Week. They simply walked onto the runway and claimed their place in it.

H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe is honored with a Platinum Who’s Who Award of Achievement recognizing leadership, humanitarian commitment, global impact, and a life of public service.

The latest recognition for H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe arrives with the formal brilliance of a ceremonial certificate and the larger meaning of a career built across royalty, media, philanthropy, authorship, and international cultural engagement. Presented as part of the United Nations Accredited NGO MCIF Platinum Who’s Who distinction, the honor places Prince Mario-Max within a celebratory circle dedicated to achievement, humanitarian purpose, and public contribution.

The certificate, dated September 9, 2026, names H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe as an honoree and frames the recognition around leadership, humanitarianism, excellence, global impact, and legacy. Its design carries the language of prestige, with gold, blue, and formal insignia surrounding the portrait of the honoree. The words on the certificate recognize dedication to humanity and an extraordinary vision for a more compassionate world, aligning the award with the ideals of service, purpose, and positive social influence.

For Prince Mario-Max, the Platinum Who’s Who level functions as a public acknowledgment of a broad personal and professional path. He is known as His Highness and Excellency Global Peace Ambassador Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe, a working royal, award-winning television and event host, Bertelsmann Random House author, public speaker, and philanthropist. His professional profile has consistently joined public presentation with charitable visibility, creating a presence that moves between red carpets, cultural programs, humanitarian platforms, and international society.

The honor also arrives in the context of the Celebrity Red Carpet Gala on Fashion Week, scheduled on the certificate for September 9, 2026, at Manhattan Motorcars in New York. That setting gives the recognition a distinctly cosmopolitan frame. Fashion Week in New York has long been a gathering point for design, entertainment, media, philanthropy, and global visibility, and the certificate’s connection to such an occasion places Prince Mario-Max’s recognition within an environment where culture and public purpose often meet.

His story has always depended on more than one arena. Prince Mario-Max has presented himself as a media figure with royal heritage, an event host with international reach, a speaker with philanthropic commitments, and an author connected to the Bertelsmann Random House world. His Instagram profile describes him as a working royal, TV host, SAG-AFTRA figure, and philanthropist, while also identifying Prince Waldemar and Dr. Princess Antonia as his parents.

The Schaumburg-Lippe name carries historical resonance, and Prince Mario-Max’s family narrative is central to how he is publicly introduced. He is described as the son of H.H. Dr. h.c. Prince Waldemar and H.H. Dr. Princess Antonia of Schaumburg-Lippe. His grandmother is identified as H.R.H. Princess Feodora of Denmark, a lineage detail that situates his public identity within a broader European royal story.

A Recognition Framed by Service

The Platinum Who’s Who certificate emphasizes service in direct, ceremonial language. It recognizes dedication to humanity, extraordinary vision, and the uplifting of others through actions that inspire global change. These themes align closely with the public image Prince Mario-Max has cultivated through philanthropic work, event visibility, and cultural representation.

The certificate’s motto, People, Purpose, Progress, A Better World, gives the recognition its clearest message. It places achievement within a human framework rather than a purely professional one. For a figure whose public life spans entertainment, social advocacy, and royal representation, the language reflects an understanding that modern prestige is measured through visibility, connection, and meaningful contribution.

The design itself reinforces that idea. Beside the honoree’s portrait, a gold ribbon identifies him as an honoree. The United Nations emblem and Sustainable Development Goals graphic appear across the upper right portion of the certificate, while the left side presents a seal and blue ribbon motif. The lower right imagery includes a globe and language about making a difference, changing lives, and building a brighter tomorrow.

Ambassador Dr. Monica Sanchez appears on the certificate as founder and CEO of Miss CARICOM International Foundation, identified with MCIF and connected to global humanitarian, education, empowerment, and sustainable development themes. Her signature appears beneath the award text, adding an institutional and ceremonial note to the presentation.

The certificate identifies the recognition as connected to a United Nations Accredited NGO MCIF Platinum Who’s Who. Its language places the honoree within an international humanitarian setting, one that values leaders whose dreams uplift others and whose actions inspire global change. That phrasing reflects the public-facing purpose of the award and its emphasis on social good.

Prince Mario-Max’s recognition fits a contemporary model of public life in which titles, media work, charitable appearances, and global networking are closely connected. His career has included television and event hosting, public speaking, authorship, and philanthropic activity, all of which contribute to a profile shaped by communication and presence. In this sense, the Platinum Who’s Who honor is a milestone in a career that has placed visibility at the service of public engagement.

His role as a television and event host is particularly important to that public identity. Hosting requires command of a room, ease before cameras, and the ability to connect individuals, institutions, and audiences. It is a profession built on composure, preparation, and social intelligence. For Prince Mario-Max, that skill set has supported a broader life in ceremonial, charitable, and cultural settings.

A Royal Public Life in a Modern Register

Prince Mario-Max belongs to a modern category of public figure, one who carries aristocratic lineage into contemporary media spaces. His work has placed him in entertainment and event culture while maintaining the formal language of his royal identity. That combination has made him recognizable across several circles, from television audiences to philanthropic events and international society networks.

The reference to his parents, H.H. Dr. h.c. Prince Waldemar and H.H. Dr. Princess Antonia of Schaumburg-Lippe, remains central to his public biography. Prince Waldemar is associated with the Schaumburg-Lippe princely house’s Nachod branch, and Prince Mario-Max’s biography repeatedly places him within that family context.

His grandmother, H.R.H. Princess Feodora of Denmark, adds another element to the dynastic narrative. Through this family connection, Prince Mario-Max’s public biography refers to the Danish Nachod line of the Princes of Schaumburg-Lippe. The family story, as presented in his materials, connects the name to historical European houses and to the founding-family heritage of Hamburg, Lübeck, and Kiel.

The language of the certificate does not dwell on ancestry alone. It gives equal weight to leadership, humanitarianism, excellence, global impact, and legacy. These words point toward the public use of status, suggesting that recognition matters most when connected to responsibility. In that sense, the certificate speaks to the present as much as the past.

Prince Mario-Max’s public platform extends through digital media as well. His Instagram, website, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn presence create multiple channels through which he communicates his activities, public appearances, professional affiliations, and personal brand. In the modern media environment, such platforms are often extensions of a public career, allowing ceremonial recognition and philanthropic messaging to reach audiences far beyond the room in which an award is presented.

His biography as an author is another part of this broader profile. The Bertelsmann Random House connection places him in the world of publishing, where personal story, cultural commentary, and public identity can be developed in a more permanent form. Authorship often gives public figures a way to shape their narrative with greater depth, and for Prince Mario-Max, it complements his work in television and live events.

The SAG-AFTRA reference in his public profile places him within the professional structures of American entertainment. That membership signals a relationship to the performance and media industries, where credibility is often built through consistent appearances, professional affiliations, and a recognizable on-camera persona.

The certificate’s New York setting adds another layer. Manhattan is a natural stage for a figure whose identity connects royalty, media, philanthropy, and public life. The city’s gala culture is built around causes, visibility, and institutional networks, and Fashion Week amplifies those qualities through design, celebrity, and international attention.

The Meaning of a Platinum Distinction

A Platinum Who’s Who recognition is presented here as the ultimate in achievement, a phrase displayed prominently on the certificate. For any honoree, such wording carries a ceremonial weight. For Prince Mario-Max, it highlights a career that has grown through continual public participation and a willingness to operate across different professional and social worlds.

The certificate’s emphasis on global impact is especially relevant to a figure identified as a Global Peace Ambassador. The title itself suggests a commitment to dialogue, goodwill, and humanitarian purpose. Within ceremonial society, such designations often function as markers of advocacy, encouraging honorees to use public access in support of constructive causes.

Prince Mario-Max’s philanthropic identity has long been part of the way he is introduced. Public profiles describe him as a philanthropist alongside his work as a host, speaker, and author. That pairing is significant because it presents his career as one in which communication and service are linked, with public platforms used to support recognition, awareness, and charitable engagement.

The language surrounding the award is aspirational but grounded in familiar humanitarian ideals. It speaks of compassion, uplift, sustainable development, education, empowerment, and a better world. These values are broad, but they are also central to many international cultural and charitable programs. They create a frame in which honorees are celebrated for their influence as well as their intentions.

The Sustainable Development Goals graphic on the certificate further situates the recognition within an international vocabulary. The goals have become a common reference point for organizations that speak about global progress, social equity, education, health, sustainability, and partnership. In the certificate’s visual language, they give the award a recognizable humanitarian context.

For Prince Mario-Max, the honor also reflects consistency. Public recognition often gathers around individuals who remain visible over time, maintaining networks, attending events, supporting causes, and communicating a clear personal identity. His career has remained active across media and public appearance, and this latest certificate becomes part of that continuing record.

There is also a distinctive ceremonial quality to the award. The gold lettering, formal portrait, ribbon motifs, globe imagery, and signed presentation create a document meant to be displayed and remembered. It is designed as a symbol of status, but its language insists that status is tied to contribution.

The portrait included on the certificate shows Prince Mario-Max in formal evening attire, reinforcing the gala context and the social elegance associated with the honor. The image presents the honoree as part of a polished event world, one where presentation, professionalism, and ceremonial style matter.

The event reference to Celebrity Red Carpet Gala on Fashion Week connects the recognition to fashion, media, and philanthropy. Red carpet events have become modern platforms for causes and social recognition, offering a place where public figures can support institutions, raise awareness, and reinforce networks of cultural leadership.

A Career Built on Presence

Prince Mario-Max’s public life is defined by presence. He works in fields where being seen, heard, and trusted are central to the role. Hosting an event, appearing on television, speaking to an audience, representing a family name, supporting a philanthropic cause, and accepting an international distinction all require the ability to carry oneself with discipline and clarity.

That kind of public presence is not static. It is built across years of appearances, introductions, interviews, ceremonies, and professional engagements. Each recognition becomes part of a larger continuum, and the Platinum Who’s Who certificate stands as a formal addition to that continuum.

His career also reflects the changing nature of royal visibility. In earlier eras, royal association was often confined to court, state, or inherited protocol. Today, many royal and noble figures participate in media, charity, cultural diplomacy, business, entertainment, and public speaking. Prince Mario-Max’s career belongs to that contemporary landscape.

The title of working royal, used in his public materials, suggests activity rather than distance. It presents royalty as a public role supported by engagement, professional output, and continual participation. In Prince Mario-Max’s case, that engagement includes television hosting, event hosting, philanthropy, and public speaking.

His identity as a public speaker adds to the sense of a communicative career. Public speaking requires a message, an audience, and a reason to gather. It transforms personal reputation into shared experience. For a figure honored for leadership and humanitarian ideals, speaking becomes one of the most direct ways to turn visibility into influence.

The award’s language of legacy is particularly fitting. Legacy is not simply inherited. It is built through action, consistency, and the way a public figure chooses to use opportunity. The certificate’s inclusion of legacy alongside leadership and humanitarianism suggests a recognition of both background and ongoing contribution.

Prince Mario-Max’s family references give his public image a historical foundation, while his media and philanthropic work give it a contemporary shape. The Platinum Who’s Who honor brings those elements together in a single presentation, one that celebrates achievement while emphasizing the social responsibilities attached to public life.

A Global Stage for Humanitarian Recognition

The presence of United Nations imagery on the certificate contributes to the international tone of the honor. It places the recognition within a broad visual language of peace, development, and global cooperation. For an honoree styled as Global Peace Ambassador, that international framing is central to the message.

The Miss CARICOM International Foundation name on the certificate also expands the award’s geographic and humanitarian context. CARICOM references the Caribbean Community, and the foundation’s presence on the certificate suggests a bridge between cultural representation, charitable work, and global development language.

Ambassador Dr. Monica Sanchez’s role as founder and CEO, as printed on the certificate, is an important part of the presentation. Her signature gives the document its formal authority within the issuing organization, and the listed themes of global humanitarian work, education, empowerment, and sustainable development define the values attached to the honor.

The certificate does more than name Prince Mario-Max. It places him within a statement of purpose. It celebrates leaders whose dreams uplift others and whose actions inspire global change. In the ceremonial world, such language matters because it creates a standard for the honoree as well as a tribute.

Prince Mario-Max’s recognition also illustrates the relationship between culture and service. Galas, award ceremonies, red carpets, and media appearances can be glamorous, but they often become meaningful when attached to philanthropic goals and institutional missions. The Platinum Who’s Who certificate uses that framework, pairing public elegance with humanitarian vocabulary.

The New York Fashion Week connection gives the recognition a vivid cultural setting. Fashion Week is a place where creativity, business, celebrity, and global attention converge. By aligning the certificate presentation with that period, the honor enters a calendar already associated with international style and media visibility.

For Prince Mario-Max, such a setting is natural. His career has long included polished appearances, hosting roles, and participation in entertainment and society events. The Platinum Who’s Who recognition therefore does not stand apart from his public path. It continues it.

The certificate’s date, September 9, 2026, gives the recognition a specific ceremonial moment. Dates matter in public life because they create milestones, and this one marks Prince Mario-Max’s entrance into the Platinum Who’s Who level as a formal point in his record of honors and appearances.

The phrasing on the certificate, Together We Make a Difference, speaks to collaboration. Public recognition is often individual, but humanitarian progress is collective. The certificate acknowledges that balance, honoring Prince Mario-Max while placing the achievement inside a shared mission.

The Honoree and the Institution of Recognition

Honors of this kind are as much about narrative as they are about ceremony. They identify a person, describe a set of values, and connect the recipient to an institution. In this case, Prince Mario-Max is recognized through the Platinum Who’s Who framework as an honoree whose public life reflects dedication, vision, and global engagement.

The words Certificate of Achievement give the honor a formal structure. Achievement is the central idea, but the surrounding text defines what kind of achievement is being celebrated. It is not limited to entertainment, authorship, or royal identity. It is presented as achievement in service of humanity.

That distinction is important for understanding the meaning of the award. Prince Mario-Max’s career has included entertainment and society visibility, but the certificate reframes visibility through humanitarian purpose. It recognizes the public figure as someone whose platform can be connected to compassion, progress, and international goodwill.

His professional range is part of what makes the recognition notable. Few public figures occupy the exact intersection of royal title, television hosting, event hosting, authorship, philanthropy, public speaking, and global ambassadorship. Prince Mario-Max’s career has been built precisely at that intersection.

The result is a public identity that is adaptable and international. He can appear in formal royal contexts, entertainment environments, philanthropic settings, and media spaces. The Platinum Who’s Who certificate acknowledges that range by using language broad enough to encompass public service, leadership, and cultural presence.

The family lineage described in his biography continues to shape the way audiences understand him. As the son of Prince Waldemar and Princess Antonia, and as the grandson of Princess Feodora of Denmark, Prince Mario-Max’s public story is connected to European aristocratic history. That story gives his contemporary work a heritage frame.

At the same time, his modern career has placed him firmly in the public industries of communication. Television, live events, publishing, social media, and philanthropy all require active participation. They reward energy, consistency, and an ability to remain relevant to different audiences.

The Platinum Who’s Who recognition therefore honors both continuity and movement. It recognizes a name rooted in historical identity while celebrating a career shaped by contemporary engagement. In that combination, the certificate becomes a symbol of a public life that moves confidently between tradition and modern visibility.

Prince Mario-Max’s inclusion as an honoree also underscores the ongoing appeal of ceremonially framed achievement. In a fast-moving digital culture, formal recognition retains power because it gives accomplishment a visible shape. A certificate, a gala, a portrait, a signature, and a date create a record that can be seen, preserved, and shared.

That record now includes H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe at the Platinum Who’s Who level. The honor adds another chapter to a career defined by public engagement, philanthropic language, and the careful presentation of a royal identity in modern cultural life.

A Milestone of Purpose and Prestige

The most compelling aspect of the certificate is the way it joins prestige to purpose. Its gold and blue design communicates honor and ceremony, while its wording emphasizes compassion and public service. The result is a recognition that celebrates achievement while pointing toward responsibility.

Prince Mario-Max has built his public profile in precisely that space. He is a figure of ceremony and media, but he is also consistently introduced through philanthropy, peace ambassadorship, and public speaking. The Platinum Who’s Who honor strengthens that profile by formally associating his name with leadership, humanitarianism, excellence, global impact, and legacy.

The award also highlights the importance of visibility in humanitarian culture. Public attention can draw people toward causes, institutions, and ideals. When a recognizable figure receives an honor connected to development and empowerment, the recognition can help extend the message behind the event.

In this way, Prince Mario-Max’s certificate becomes more than a personal tribute. It becomes part of a broader cultural practice in which public figures are encouraged to represent ideals of service, compassion, and cross-cultural connection. That practice is central to many galas and recognition programs, especially those connected to international language and charitable purpose.

The certificate’s final visual messages, Empowering People, Changing Lives, Building a Brighter Tomorrow, give the honor a forward-looking close. They present achievement as something active, not finished. For Prince Mario-Max, whose career continues across media, philanthropy, and public life, that forward motion is essential.

His recognition at the Platinum Who’s Who level stands as a polished ceremonial milestone. It celebrates a figure who has maintained a distinctive public identity, honored his family narrative, embraced media visibility, and aligned his work with humanitarian ideals. It is an award of style, institution, and message, delivered through a certificate designed to be seen and remembered.

As H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe steps into this Platinum Who’s Who distinction, the moment affirms a career built on presence, service, and international cultural connection. The recognition adds another formal marker to his public journey, one shaped by royal heritage, professional versatility, and a continuing commitment to the language of a better world.

There are family secrets we inherit, family stories we repeat and family wounds we spend a lifetime trying to understand. In Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness, playwright Sharon Scott Williams turns her own family history into a theatrical examination of what happens when a child grows up loving someone she cannot save.

Rubicon Theatre Company will bring the Off-Broadway premiere of Williams’ autobiographical play to 59E59 Theaters this fall, with Linda Purl taking on an extraordinary 16 characters under the direction of Anson Williams. Will Huse joins her as The Blues Man.

For television audiences, the director Anson Williams remains instantly associated with Warren “Potsie” Weber on the iconic series Happy Days, but his career behind the camera has been extensive, directing hundreds of hours of television. There is also a delightful bit of Happy Days symmetry in his collaboration with Purl: she played Ashley Pfister, Fonzie’s girlfriend, during the series’ tenth season. Decades later, the two are reunited on considerably darker territory, with Williams directing Purl through a story in which comedy and heartbreak live uncomfortably close together.

The story begins just days after Sharon’s eighth birthday. Racing home from school to beat her teenage brother, Spikey, to the final piece of birthday cake, she walks into the kitchen and finds her mother holding a knife. The sheriff takes her mother away, and a deputy gives the little girl an explanation both brutally simple and wholly inadequate: her mama is “not right in the head.”

What follows is not simply a story about mental illness. It is the story of a daughter who spends decades believing that if she loves fiercely enough, tries hard enough or somehow finds the right answer, she can rescue her mother.

That distinction gives Crazy Mama its emotional center. Mental illness affects the person living with it, but its reach rarely stops there. It changes marriages, childhoods, siblings and entire families. Williams writes from the perspective of someone who knew both the love and the fear inside that experience.

“Mental illness affects one in four people, but all-too-often individuals and families don’t speak of their experience and hide their pain,” Williams says. “I was lucky. I had my family to help me through it, but there were times we were afraid to talk about it. Crazy Mama is a story that helps lift that stigma.”

Rather than treating its subject with unrelenting solemnity, the play is laced with humor as well as pathos. That matters. Families living through extraordinary circumstances still laugh, fight over birthday cake, irritate one another and get through Tuesday. Resilience isn’t always heroic. Sometimes it is simply continuing to love someone when love cannot fix what is wrong.

For Purl, whose career has moved easily between stage, film and television, Crazy Mama presents a formidable theatrical challenge. Sixteen characters pass through a single performer, requiring not merely vocal or physical transformation but the creation of an entire family and world around one woman’s memory.

The production arrives in New York following its world premiere at Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, California, in March 2025. Rubicon Producing Artistic Directors Karyl Lynn Burns and Jonathan Drahos now bring the work east for its Off-Broadway debut.

The creative team includes Brian Gale, who provides lighting and projection design, and Lindsay Jones on sound design. Alexandrea Hess Rodriguez serves as production stage manager, with Stephanie Coltrin as associate producer.

At its heart, Crazy Mama asks a difficult question: What happens when the person you desperately want to save is someone you do not have the power to save?

Williams lived that question. Now Linda Purl will become the 16 people who helped her tell the story.

Performances begin September 16, with opening night set for September 22. The limited engagement runs through October 18 in Theater C.

Crazy Mama runs two hours and five minutes, including intermission, with performances Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $42, including the $2 fee, through 59E59 Theaters, by phone at 646-892-7999, or at the box office at 59 East 59th Street.