The Roundabout Theatre Company will stage its annual Spring Gala on April 30 in honor of Stephen Sondheim. As previously reported, the event celebrates a successful collaboration that began when the leading nonprofit staged the composer’s Company back in 1994.
At the gala, a celebrity crowd will attend a special performance of the Sondheim-Goldman musical Follies now playing at the Belasco Theatre, followed by a “star-studded dinner at Cipriani 42nd St.”
The Roundabout benefit is aimed at supporting the revival of musicals and the development of new musical works.
The 6:45 PM performance of Follies at the Belasco (111 W. 44 St.) will be followed by a 9:30 PM dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street (110 E. 42 St.). Bernadette Peters (Annie Get Your Gun) and Jane Krakowski (“Ally McBeal” and Roundabout’s Company) are honorary chairs of the event. Co-chairs include Diane and Tom Tuft and Tom Gleason. Special guest Elaine Stritch is scheduled to “share anecdotes” about her work with Sondheim (which includes Company and the 1985 concert production of Follies).
According to production notes, numerous celebrities are expected at the gala. At press time this list comprises Nathan Lane (Wise Guys workshop), Alan Cumming, John Slattery, Donna Murphy (Passion), Philip Bosco, Marin Mazzie (Passion), Boyd Gaines (the Broadway revival of Company, City Opera's A Little Night Music), Scott Ellis (the Broadway revival of Company), Joe Masteroff, Paula Vogel, Joe Mantello and Michael Mayer as well as the cast of Follies : Blythe Danner, Gregory Harrison, Judith Ivey, Treat Williams, Polly Bergen, Marge Champion, Betty Garrett, Joan Roberts, Donald Saddler, Jane White, Carol Woods and Louis Zorich. Proceeds will benefit Roundabout’ s “Great American Musical Series Fund” which supports the revival of “rarely produced musicals and developing new musicals for the Broadway stage.”
In the past, Roundabout has produced She Loves Me, A Grand Night For Singing, Company, 1776, Cabaret and Little Me. In Novemeber 2001, Roundabout will stage the Broadway premiere of Sondheim’s Assassins at the Booth Theatre.
Tickets for the Spring Gala can be obtained be calling Marge Lempert at (212) 719-9393 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
