Donna McKechnie, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Penny Fuller to Headline MTC’s An Intimate Night

By Andrew Gans
09 Jan 2006

Donna McKechnie
Donna McKechnie
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Tony Award winners Donna McKechnie and Brian Stokes Mitchell and Emmy winner Penny Fuller will take part in An Intimate Night, a cabaret-style show that will be the centerpiece of the Manhattan Theatre Club’s annual Winter Benefit.

The evening at the Rainbow Room will be held Jan. 23 and will kick off at 7 PM with a cocktail reception. Dinner will follow at 8 PM with the McKechnie-Mitchell-Fuller program at 9:15 PM.

The Honorary Chairs of the event are Kitty Carlisle Hart and Liz Smith with Co-chairs Bethany Millard and Ellen Moskowitz. All money raised from An Intimate Night will benefit MTC's educational outreach programs, as well as its musical theatre and play development activities.

Best known for her Tony-winning performance as Cassie in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line, Donna McKechnie has appeared in a plethora of musicals both on and Off-Broadway, some of which include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Company, State Fair, Can-Can, Annie Get Your Gun, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, State Fair and Promises, Promises. In her first full length, one-woman musical celebration, Inside the Music, McKechnie performed songs from several of these productions and offered personal anecdotes about her experiences with some of the theatre’s finest actors, directors, producers and writers. A live recording of that act was released on the Fynsworth Alley label. McKechnie is now working on her autobiography — with writer Greg Lawrence — for Simon & Schuster.

Brian Stokes Mitchell, who will star in the upcoming City Center Encores! presentation of Kismet, earned a Tony nomination for his performance in the title role of Man of La Mancha. He won the 2000 Tony, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards for his performance as Fred Graham/Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate, and his other Broadway credits include lead roles in King Hedley II; Ragtime; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Jelly's Last Jam; Oh, Kay!; Mail; and the City Center Encores! presentations of Do Re Mi and Carnival. Television audiences will be familiar with Mitchell's work from his roles on "Trapper John, M.D.," "Roots" and "Frasier." Mitchell was elected the twelfth president of the Actors' Fund of America, and he made his cabaret debut in February at Feinstein's at the Regency.

Penny Fuller made her Broadway debut in 1962 in the original play The Moon Besieged. She received Tony nominations for her work in Applause and The Dinner Party; her other Broadway credits include Barefoot in the Park, Cabaret, Rex and An American Daughter. Fuller was also seen Off-Broadway in William Finn's A New Brain. Her numerous television appearances have garnered her six Emmy nominations and the Emmy Award for her performance in "The Elephant Man."

The Rainbow Room is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on the 65th Floor. Tickets are available by calling (212) 399-3000, ext. 146.