Editing Bebe Neuwirth (section)

==Early life==
Bebe Neuwirth was born in [[Newark, New Jersey]].<ref name="JNW" /><ref name=tvg/><ref name="CheersRetrop99" /> Her father, Lee Neuwirth, was a mathematician who taught at [[Princeton University]] and also designed an encryption device while working at the [[Institute for Defense Analyses]].<ref name = "CheersRetrop99">{{cite book|last=Bjorklund|first=Dennis|year=2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEN6sTeG20AC&q=Bebe+Neuwirth&pg=PA99|title=Cheers TV Show: A Comprehensive Reference|page=99|publisher=Praetorian Publishing|isbn=9780967985237|access-date=February 6, 2019|archive-date=August 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810054839/https://books.google.com/books?id=pEN6sTeG20AC&q=Bebe+Neuwirth&pg=PA99|url-status=live}}</ref> Her mother, Sydney Anne Neuwirth, is a painter who also danced as an amateur for the [[American Repertory Ballet|Princeton Regional Ballet Company]].<ref name = "CheersRetrop99"/> She has an older brother, Peter, a mathematician and actuary who graduated from [[Harvard University|Harvard]].<ref name = "CheersRetrop99"/> She attended [[Chapin School (New Jersey)|Chapin School]] and [[Princeton Day School]], and [[Princeton High School (New Jersey)|Princeton High School]]. In her youth, Neuwirth rebelled against authority, being placed in custody for smoking marijuana when she was 13.<ref name = "CheersRetrop99"/>

Neuwirth started taking [[ballet]] lessons at the age of five, a year after viewing a production of ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' with her mother.<ref name = "CheersRetrop99"/> She desired to be a [[ballet dancer]] until her early teens, when she realized how restricted her technique was, as well as the standard of ballet education where she lived.<ref name = "CheersRetrop99"/> Upon viewing the musical ''[[Pippin (musical)|Pippin]]'' in Manhattan at 13, she changed her future plans from becoming a ballerina to being a Broadway musical dancer.<ref name = "CheersRetrop99"/> After graduating from Princeton High School in 1976,<ref>{{cite book|title=The Ulitimate New Jersey High School Year Book.|date=1998|publisher=The Star Ledger.|page=76}}</ref> she attended the [[Juilliard School]] for dance and left after only a year, disliking the school for having a "stifling creative environment" and no Broadway-style dance training.<ref name = "CheersRetrop100">Bjorklund, p. 100.</ref> Immediately after leaving Juilliard in 1977, she took singing and jazz classes at a New York City-based [[YWCA]],<ref name = "CheersRetrop100"/> one of them taught by Joan Morton Lucas, who appeared in the film ''[[Singin' in the Rain]]'' (1952) and the original [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] production of ''[[Kiss Me Kate]]''.<ref name = "AUmag"/> She performed with the [[American Repertory Ballet|Princeton Ballet Company]] in ''[[Peter and the Wolf]]'', ''[[The Nutcracker]]'', and ''[[Coppélia]]'', also appearing in community theater musicals.