The black-tie evening will begin with cocktails at 5:30 PM, followed by an awards ceremony and Peters' performance. Dinner, silent auction and fireworks will conclude the evening.
Awards will be presented to Leon G. and Toby Cooperman (the 2008 Chambers Award for Service to the Community and the Arts), Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and its president and CEO, William J. Marino (the 2008 Vagelos Award for Service to the Community and the Arts) and the Honorable Claude and Barbara Bell Coleman (the 2008 Ryan Award for Community Leadership).
In a statement Gabriella Morris, Esq., president of the Women's Association of NJPAC said, "The Women's Association of NJPAC is proud and honored to play an integral role in the livelihood of the Performing Arts Center. Since our inception in 1994, the Trustees and the more than 200 members of the Women's Association have worked passionately, tirelessly, and creatively in support of NJPAC. All told, the Women's Association of NJPAC has now had the privilege of not only donating $28 million in support of general operations and the Arts Education program, but delivering priceless new friends with an enlightened sense of Newark and NJPAC's important place in it."
Bernadette Peters was last on Broadway in the acclaimed revival of Gypsy, for which she received a 2003 Tony Award nomination for her performance as Rose in the Sam Mendes-directed production. She won her two Tonys for her performances in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song & Dance and Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, and she has also starred on Broadway in Mack & Mabel, On the Town, Sunday in the Park with George, The Goodbye Girl and the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Peters' newest live recording, "Sondheim, Etc., Etc.—Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall (The Rest of It)," is available on the Angel Records label. Masterworks Broadway has also released a "Legends of Broadway" CD celebrating her theatrical career. Peters' screen credits are numerous.
The actress is also the author of the best-selling children's book "Broadway Barks," which benefits the charity of the same name. NJPAC is located at One Center Street in Newark, NJ. Single tickets for the evening begin at $1,000. For more information call Gail P. Stone at (973) 297-5806 or e-mail [email protected].
