Laurie Beechman, the actress who sang in Annie about arriving in "NYC" with "three bucks, two bags, one me," will be remembered by her friends and colleagues in an April 5 show in New York City to benefit a scholarship in her name. The list of performers for the dinner-and-show fundraiser at the West Bank Cafe's Laurie Beechman Theatre includes Faith Prince, Donna Murphy, Sam Harris, Karen Mason, Loni Ackerman, Mary Testa, Ron Raines, Catherine Hickland, Andrea McArdle. Comedian Lewis Black is master of ceremonies, musical director is Larry Yurman, a Beechman collaborator.
Beechman appeared on Broadway in the original Annie, in 1982's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and as Grizabella in Cats, and was a frequent singer in New York cabarets. She died of ovarian cancer in March 1998.
Proceeds from the $250 event will go to the Laurie Beechman Memorial Scholarship Fund at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
The annual scholarship is given to a graduating senior, allowing them to arrive in New York -- or anywhere else -- with more than the "three bucks" Beechman belted about.
Jim Wilhelm, Beechman's agent and friend, is producing the evening; Richard Jay-Alexander directs.
The West Bank Cafe will be closed to the public April 5, to accommodate the 6:30 PM event.
For reservations, call (212) 695-6909.
To make a tax deductible contribution, make checks payable to The Laurie Beechman Memorial Fund/UCFDT c/o Jim Wilhelm, 1501 Broadway, Suite 703, New York, NY, 10036.
-- By Kenneth Jones
