The annual "Nothing Like a Dame" benefit takes place at the St. James Theatre on Monday, March 18. "Dames 2002" supports the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative of the Actors' Fund and will feature many of Broadway's top stars in a non-stop evening featuring music, dance and theatre. Encores! artistic director Kathleen Marshall (Kiss Me, Kate's choreographer) directs.
According to the Boneau/Bryan-Brown press office, among the featured femmes will be Kathleen Chalfant, Glenn Close (Sunset Boulevard), Lea DeLaria, Sandy Duncan (due in Urban Cowboy), Lauren Flanigan, Amanda Green, Uta Hagen (Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks), Joan Hamburg, Valerie Harper, Cherry Jones, Michele Lee, Rue McClanahan (The Women), Debra Monk (Thou Shalt Not), Bebe Neuwirth (Everett Beekin), Phyllis Newman, Cynthia Nixon (The Women, Donna Murphy, Faith Prince (Noises Off), The Rockettes, Mary Testa, Kathleen Turner (The Graduate) and Karen Ziemba (Contact).
Actor, director and breast cancer survivor Phyllis Newman founded the Women's Health Initiative in her name. The group "addresses health issues which impact women in the entertainment industry."
Tickets to "Nothing Like a Dame 2002" run $40-$1,000. The show, which is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS for the Actors' Fund, starts at 8 PM and, in the tradition of the event, there will be an after party at John's Pizzaria, two doors down from the theatre. For information and reservations on "Nothing Like a Dame" at the St. James, 246 West 44th Street, call (212) 840-0770 ext. 268 or visit or www.broadwaycares.org and www.actorsfund.org
—By David Lefkowitz and Murdoch McBride
