SPECIAL EVENTS
Over the years, I've produced many memorable one-night-only special events:
2008 "Library Lions" Awards
I wrote the script and produced video tributes for the NYPL's
annual gala fundraiser, the Library Lions dinner, hosted by Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison on November
3, 2008. The honorees included playwright/director Edward Albee, author/illustrator Ashley Bryan, writer/director/producer
Nora Ephron and author Sir Salman Rushdie. The evening raised $2.9 million for the Library.
2007 "Library Lions" Awards
I wrote the script and produced video tributes for the NYPL's
annual gala fundraiser, the Library Lions dinner, hosted by Tony-winning actress Jennifer Ehle on November 5, 2007.
The honorees included historian John Hope Franklin, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, filmmaker Martin Scorsese and playwright Sir Tom
Stoppard. The evening raised $2.5 million for the Library. To read press coverage of the event, click here.
"New 42 Follies"
I conceived, coordinated, scripted and created video material for the
New 42nd Street, Inc.'s May 21, 2007 benefit at the New Victory Theater. The program included performances by stars
of current Broadway shows that rehearsed at the New 42nd Street Studios, including The Color Purple, Coram Boy, Curtains,
The Drowsy Chaperone, Monty Python's Spamalot, and Tarzan.
Lincoln Center Theater 2007 gala
I oversaw LCT's March 5, 2007 gala, a performance of Wendy Wasserstein's
The Sisters Rosensweig at the Vivian Beaumont Theater with a cast that included Christine Baranski, Stockard
Channing and Edie Falco (pictured, left to right) as well as Ari Graynor, John Michael Higgins, Robert Klein, Simon Jones
and Peter Scanavino, directed by Daniel Sullivan. To read about this event, which raised over $1 million, click here.
2006 "Library Lion" Awards
I wrote and produced the video tributes to the honorees at the New York
Public Library's annual gala, hosted by author Toni Morrison. This year's winners include four Nobel Prize winners
-- Gao Xingjian, Orhan Pamut, James D. Watson and Elie Wiesel -- and Oprah Winfrey. I also created a video segment highlighting
the NYPL's accomplishments in 2006. This event raised $2.2 million for the New York Public Library's general book fund.
To read press coverage of the event, click here.
"Master Class"
On June 19, 2006 at the the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway,
I produced a one-night-only performance of Terrence McNally's Tony-winning play Master Class, as a benefit for the
Metropolitan Opera Guild. Six leading actresses—Kathy
Bates, Dixie Carter, Edie Falco, Jessica Lange, Maria Tucci and Leslie Uggams—shared the central role of Maria Callas.
In her syndicated column on Sunday, May 28, 2006, Liz Smith called it "the big 'Don't Miss' of the month of June." For
more details on this special evening, click here. To read the New York Times feature story on the event, click here. Click here for more photos from the performance.
"A Rembrance of Wendy Wasserstein"
March 13, 2006 at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater.
I oversaw all aspects of this large-scale memorial tribute, coordinating the various speakers including playwrights Christopher
Durang, Terrence McNally & Peter Parnell and directors James Lapine & Daniel Sullivan as well as performances
of scenes from her best-loved plays by actors including Joan Allen, Jill Eikenberry, Boyd Gaines, Swoosie Kurtz, Robert Klein,
Linda Lavin, and Meryl Streep (see photo). I also created the video segments and published a commemorative journal,
as well as supervised invitations and ticketing. Over 1000 people attended the event at the Beaumont, and
I set up a live video simulcast for an overflow crowd of 500 more people who watched at the nearby Juilliard School's Peter
Jay Sharp Theater.
In the Sunday, December 31, 2006 issue of The New
York Times Magazine, Frank Rich wrote: "The program included some of Wendy’s favorite actors performing scenes from her plays and some of her closest friends
and artistic collaborators recalling her infectious humor and countless acts of generosity...Yet what lingers most from the
memorial these months later is the montage of home movies and photos at its end: Wendy hamming it up for the camera during
her ostensibly cheerful middle-class childhood. Wendy, an uncommon woman among the Playwrights Horizons gang of men, preparing
to conquer the New York theater from way West 42nd Street. Wendy, middle-aged, successful, a fixture of the establishment,
yet still with that wide-open smile and ragamuffin’s wardrobe. And finally, Wendy in late-in-life parenthood, the single
mother of Lucy Jane. The dramatic arc of the Wendy chronicles was a shapely three acts plus an epilogue, marred only by the
abrupt fall of that tragic final curtain." [To read
other press coverage of this event, click here and here.]
2005 "Library Lion" Awards
November 14, 2005 at the The New York Public Library.
I produced video tributes to the 2005 honorees: author, editor, critic and Yale professor Harold Bloom; author and New
York Times columnist Thomas Friedman; novelist Shirley Hazzard; film and theater director/producer Mike Nichols; and
jazz musician, composer and educator Billy Taylor. For press coverage of the 2005 Awards, click
here.
"Hart to Hart: A Tribute to Kitty Carlisle and Moss Hart"
Metropolitan Opera Guild gala on November 21, 2004 at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. I
produced this evening which included rare film/video excerpts and live performances and appearances by co-hosts Julie Andrews
and Beverly Sills, Jane Alexander, Orson Bean, Steven Blier, Michael Feinstein, Robert Goulet, Denyce Graves, Thomas Hampson,
Theodora Hanslowe, Rosemary Harris, Catherine & Christopher Hart, Celeste Holm, Audra McDonald, Sylvia McNair, Anna Moffo,
Lonny Price and a chorus from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. To view more photos of the event, click here. To read press coverage
of the event, click here and here.
2004 "Library Lion" Awards November 1, 2004 at the New York Public Library. I produced
video tributes to the 2004 honorees (in photo, from left to right): conductor James Conlon; opera singer Renee Fleming;
author/scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; and New Yorker editor David Remnick
NY Public Library -- 10th Anniversary Party for Paul LeClerc
January 12, 2004 at the New York
Public Library. I produced a video tribute as the centerpiece of the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Library President
Paul LeClerc, highlighting his achievements during his first decade of leadership at this cultural landmark.
"Bravo Bernstein!" -- Musical Theatre Works gala
November 24, 2003 at Broadway's historic Hudson Theatre. I co-produced
a gala concert tribute to composer Leonard Bernstein, hosted by Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce and featuring performances by
a dozen stars of Broadway, jazz and classical music, including (see above photo, from left to right) Tony winner
Michael Cerveris, Tony nominees Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley, Mr. Pierce, Tony winners Audra McDonald & Betty Buckley,
and David Miller (now part of the internationally popular quartet Il Divo).
2003 "Library Lion" Awards
November 4, 2003 at the New
York Public Library. I produced video tributes to the 2003 honorees (in photo, from left to right): art critic/historian
John Richardson, actress/singer Audra McDonald, artist Jim Dine, and poet Billy Collins.
2002 "Library Lion" Awards
November 4, 2002 at the New
York Public Library. I produced video tributes to the 2002 honorees: historians Robert A. Caro and David Levering Lewis, theater
& film director Julie Taymor, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.
2002 Lincoln Center Theater Annual Board Dinner
September 30, 2002 on the stage
of Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. The evening -- a tribute to outgoing Chairman Linda LeRoy Janklow -- included
specialty lyrics I wrote to "You're The Top" and the premiere of a video retrospective I produced entitled "Lincoln Center
Theater: The First 17 Years".
Anything Goes -- 15th Anniversary gala
April 1, 2002 at Lincoln
Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. I produced this staged concert version with Patti LuPone and Howard McGillin, reprising
their roles from LCT's award-winning 1987 revival of Cole Porter's beloved musical comedy, this time directed and choreographed
by Robert Longbottom.
The House Of Blue Leaves -- 15th Anniversary gala
May 21, 2001 at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. I conceived
and produced a staging of John Guare's play which reunited the original stars of LCT's 1986 award-winning production -- including
Stockard Channing, Swoosie Kurtz, and John Mahoney -- this time directed by Walter Bobbie.
May 22, 2000 at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. I co-produced
a staged concert version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's timeless musical, starring George Hearn, Karen Ziemba and Bill Murray,
directed by Jerry Zaks.
Annie Get Your Gun in concert
May 8, 1998 at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. I produced a
staged concert version of Irving Berlin's popular musical comedy, starring Patti LuPone and Peter Gallagher, directed by Lonny
Price.
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