Childhood Actor Now Miami TV Reporter

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Did you ever wonder what happens to childhood actors when they grow up?

Well, at least one is a TV News Reporter in Miami.

Turns out Auntie Mame’s little nephew Patrick is all grown up and now reporting the news for WSVN.

Even Mame composer Jerry Herman, who lives in Miami Beach, had no idea one-time Broadway child star Roshi Handwerger is the same person as WSVN general assignment reporter Rosh Lowe.

“For three years I have watched newscaster Rosh Lowe, never knowing he was my young Patrick grown up,” says the legendary composer, who also wrote the scores for Broadway’s Hello, Dolly!, Mack & Mabel and La Cage aux Folles. “Mame would be so proud!”

Lowe, 41, grew up in Rye, New York, the son of an orthodontist with a passion for theater. “The first time I ever performed was when I was 5 years old at the Rye Community Synagogue for a production of Noah’s Ark,” Lowe says. “I fell in love with connecting with an audience. I had this love for connecting with a room of people, which is what I do today. Part of being a TV news reporter is being able to connect with an audience.”

In 1982, Lowe’s dad, Edmund, took him to audition for a Central Park production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “Joseph Papp discovered me and gave me a role,” Lowe recalls. “The next year, I got my big break,” he continues, recalling an open audition for the 1983 Broadway revival of Mame starring Angela Lansbury.

Reporting has also brought him back to his Jewish faith.

Reporting also led to a newfound Jewish spirituality. 

“I grew up beyond Reform. Not observant at all,” Lowe says. “One of the first stories I covered in Naples was a gruesome murder. … I saw body bags coming out of this apartment and I thought to myself, ‘What is life all about?’ Albert Einstein said either nothing’s a miracle or everything’s a miracle. I decided to look at life as if everything is a miracle.”

Now Orthodox, he is an active board member at the Shul of Bal Harbour. “I may be the only reporter in the country that is Sabbath observant. I do not work on Saturdays,” says Lowe, adding he is “forever grateful” to WSVN station owner Ed Ansin for always giving him the time off. “I have become in the Jewish community a very big role model. Young people look at me and say, ‘Wow, it’s possible to be both observant, true to your beliefs and have a job in the secular world.’ I’m very proud that I can inspire other people.”

Here's Rosh on Broadway as a child actor in 1983:

Colour, audio b-roll footage of the short lived revival of Angela Lansbury in Mame. The "Mame" number was shot on Opening Night, July 24, 1983. The others were filmed during previews, anywhere from July 20 to the 24.