Tony Award nominee Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, The Divine Sister) and actress Julie Halston (Anything Goes, The Divine Sister) hosted the 6 PM event that also payed tribute to City National Bank.
Last September the Vineyard presented the extended debut of Silver's The Lyons, which featured Lavin (Other Desert Cities, Collected Stories, The Sisters Rosensweig). The play will arrive on Broadway in April with the original cast in tow.
Scheduled to appear at the gala were Judy Kuhn (Chess, Les Miserables), Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu, Finian's Rainbow), Debra Messing ("Smash," "Will & Grace"), Jesse Mueller (On a Clear Day...), Colman Domingo (The Scottsboro Boys, Passing Strange), Will Chase ("Smash," Rent), Hope Davis (God of Carnage), Jill Eikenberry ("L.A. Law"), Michael Tucker ("L.A. Law"), Celia Weston ("Alice," "The Village"), Tony Roberts (Xanadu, "Annie Hall"), John Guare (House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation), Jim Caruso ("Cast Party" at Birdland), Billy Stritch (42nd Street), Veanne Cox (Caroline, or Change), Julia Murney (Wicked, The Wild Party) and Ann Harada (Avenue Q).
"The Vineyard Theatre is like no other theater in the country....They produce me," Silver said in a statement. "And of course I am terrifically proud to call The Vineyard my home. No other theatre in New York would take the chances they do. From Three Tall Women to The Scottsboro Boys, The Vineyard is dedicated to risk. The Lyons was the perfect cap to our first twenty years together. A wonderful production and a dream cast led by that breath-taking force of nature, Linda Lavin."
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