Among those performing tributes were Tony Award nominee Keith Carradine (Hands on a Hardbody, The Will Rogers Follies) and Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; Jelly’s Last Jam).
The event co-chairs were Roger Berlind, Roy Furman and Barry and Fran Weissler.
Each year, New Dramatists salutes an individual "who has made an outstanding artistic contribution to the theatre community." Gelblum has practiced entertainment law in New York for more than 27 years. For the past 15 years, he has been head of the theatre practice at Loeb & Loeb LLP. He also represents producers, writers and directors for feature film, documentary film and television projects. He has been named New York Entertainment Lawyer of the Year, a New York City Top 100 Super Lawyer and a Hollywood Reporter Top 100 Power Lawyer.
“Seth Gelblum operates in a business of big-world deals and major theatre and film artists and producers, but he’s never lost touch with the aspirations and struggles of every playwright,” said Todd London, artistic director, New Dramatists, in a previous statement. “In his decades of leadership of New Dramatists, he’s never stopped asking fundamental questions: ‘What do the writers want? What do they need?’ And then he’s worked selflessly to make sure they get those things. He is and will always be the ChairMensch of the New Dramatists’ board. We are lucky to have him and honored to honor him.” Past luncheon honorees have included Bernadette Peters, Roger Berlind, Julie Taymor, Horton Foote, Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, Chita Rivera, Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Glenn Close, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, Jerry Herman, Terrence McNally, Barbara Cook, John Kander & Fred Ebb, August Wilson and Gwen Verdon.
