A 7-8 PM cocktail hour will begin the event. The 8 PM memorial service is free, but reservations are required, will begin at 8 PM.

The evening will be co-hosted by Tony, Drama Desk and Theatre World Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell and Theatre World Awards host, journalist and author Peter Filichia. Alex Rybeck will serve as musical director.

Willis died June 25 at age 93 from complications from lung cancer. He received a 2001 Tony Award for Excellence in the Theatre and the 2003 Broadway Theatre Institute Lifetime Acheivement Award, both on behalf of Theatre World, in addition to a Drama Desk Award, a Lucille Lortel Award and the National Board of Review William K. Everson Award.

Theatre World is currently edited by Ben Hodges and Scott Denny and published by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, a division of Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group. The Theatre World Awards board of directors is: Kati Meister (president), Erin Oestreich (vice-president), Jon Lonoff (treasurer), Cara Lustik (secretary), Tom Lynch (founding board member), Mary K. Botosan, Barry Keating, Dorothy Wachtenheim Kopelman, Sal Scamardo and Jane Stuart.

The National Arts Club is located at 15 Gramercy Park South. Dress code is business casual. Admission is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required. To make a reservation, email [email protected].