The program will include poems by Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, e.e. cummings, Dorothy Parker, William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward.
A reception of champagne and desserts will follow. The show benefits the theatre's educational programming.
Newman is the world-renowned film star and spaghetti sauce and salad dressing magnate. He appeared at Westport in Love Letters, Ancestral Voices, Trumbo and a revival of Our Town, which transferred to Broadway and was filmed for Showtime and PBS.
Joanne Woodward — who has won three Emmy Awards and an Academy Award for "The Three Faces of Eve" — is the artistic director emeritus of Westport Country Playhouse, following five seasons as artistic director (2001-2005), and one season as artistic advisor (2000). At Westport she directed The Member of the Wedding, The Constant Wife and Three Days of Rain and co-directed David Copperfield. She appeared on the Playhouse stage in Love Letters and Ancestral Voices.
Kitt's most recent show was Mimi le Duck Off-Broadway. The world-renowned concert artist and actress has appeared on Broadway in Bal Negre, Leonard Silliman's New Faces of 1952, Mrs. Patterson, Shinbone Alley, Jolly's Progress, Timbuktu! (Tony nomination), The Wild Party (Tony nomination) and Nine. Her numerous screen credits include the 1965 drama "I Spy," for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award, and the show "Batman," in which she played Catwoman. Grodin is known for his work as a film actor appearing in "Sex and the College Girl," "Rosemary's Baby," "Heaven Can Wait," "Midnight Run," "Taking Care of Business," "Beethoven" and "Dave." On Broadway, Grodin appeared in Tchin-Tchin, Absence of a Cello and Same Time, Next Year and directed Unexpected Guests, Lovers and Other Strangers and Thieves. His play, The Right Kind of People, played Off-Broadway at Primary Stages (January-March 2006) following its world premiere (November 2004) at San Francisco's Magic Theatre.
Tickets are $300 (of which $225 is tax deductible) and $175 (of which $100 is tax deductible).
Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1 in Westport, CT. For tickets or more information call (203) 227-4177, or, for out-of-town callers, toll-free at 888-927-7529, or visit www.westportplayhouse.org.
