The Ervin & Edith Drake Celebration, in honor of Drake and his wife, will include performances by Broadway's Marc Kudisch, Ron Raines and Christine Pedi, as well as cabaret favorites Steve Ross, Karen Saunders and KT Sullivan. The emcee is WOR's Joey Reynolds. Richard Skipper will make a special appearance as "Carol Channing."
Schele Williams directs, with musical direction by Christopher Berg.
Expect "songs, roasting, toasting and a Silent Auction."
Drake is also known for the songs "Perdido," "Tico-Tico," "I Believe," "Good Morning Heartache," "A Room Without Windows" and more. For more information about Drake, visit www.ervindrake.com.
The luncheon will be held 12:30 PM Feb. 10 at Sardi's Eugenia Room, fourth floor, 234 West 44th Street. Proceeds from the event support the programs of the not-for-profit Musical Mondays Theater Lab (MMTL), which "develops new works for the musical theatre through a multi-step reading program," according to its mission.
Tickets range from $150 (for regular table seating) to $250 (for premium table seating) and $2,500 (for tables of ten and program recognition).
For tickets or more information, call SmartTic at (212) 868-4444 or visit www.musicalmondays.org.
The Drake benefit committee includes co-chairs Pat Addiss and Sandi Durell, Jean Banks, Janet Barbash, Rose Billings, Bob Blume, Linda Amiel Burns, Linda Burson, Myra Chanin, Frank Evans, Jae French, Joyce Galley, Bick Goss, Jonathan Herzog, Peter Jones, Michael Kerker, Kailee Scales, Laura Slutsky and Schele Williams.
At MMTL, "Works vary in style from traditional to avant garde and are selected from professional recommendations as well as formal and informal associations with organizations like the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) and The BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. Works are initially given a table reading for a select group of musical theater professionals who then work with the writers prior to the next stage of presentation. Subsequent public staged readings are presented in accord with the Actors' Equity Reading Code using professional New York actors, directors and musical directors. These staged readings can be either an abridged version of a work, a first act of a work or a complete musical. In the MMTL developmental process, works can progress from shorter presentations to complete readings.
"To date, nine of the works developed by this process have gone on to other venues (Off-Broadway and regional theater) and three of the writers (or writing teams) have been commissioned to write new works for both not-for-profit and the commercial theatre."
