Annual Gala Archive
GIMME A BREAK 2011
Honored playwright Douglas Carter Beane and composer/lyricist Lewis Flinn
Hosted by Julie Halston
Featuring performances by Kerry Butler, Jackie Hoffman, Andrew Rannells, Andrew Samonsky, Alexandra Silber, and Mary Testa
Read Playbill's article with photos from the evening, and check out BroadwayWorld's article/photo gallery here.
DOUGLAS CARTER BEANE wrote the book for Lysistrata Jones, which received critical acclaim for its New York debut with Transport Group and will open on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theater on December 14, 2011. Plays: The Little Dog Laughed (TONY and Olivier Nominations for Best Play, GLAAD Media Award), Mr & Mrs Fitch, As Bees in Honey Drown (Outer Critics Circle Gassner Award), Music From a Sparkling Planet, The Country Club, Advice From a Caterpillar, The Cartells, and the upcoming The Nance. Musicals: Xanadu (Outer Critics, HX, Drama Desk award for Best Book, Tony nomination for Best Book), Sister Act (Tony nomination for Best Book), The Big Time, The Bandwagon, and a soon-to-be-announced Rodgers and Hammerstein project. Revues: Mondo Drama and White Lies. Screenplays: Advice From a Caterpillar (Aspen Comedy Festival Best Feature); To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. As Artistic Director of Drama Dept., he produced more than 40 productions including revivals of As Thousands Cheer, June Moon and The Torchbearers, and world premieres by Paul Rudnick, David Sedaris and Wendy Wasserstein. He resides in NYC with his partner, Lewis Flinn, and their children Cooper and Gabrielle.
LEWIS FLINN wrote the music and lyrics for Lysistrata Jones. Additional musical projects include The Divine Sister with Charles Busch, On Girl with Steven Sater, Like Love with Barry Kaplan (NYMF 2007), The Winner with Joe Sutton (the Lyric Stage, Dallas 2007), and Down There with Brian Crawley. He has also composed scores and songs for over 50 productions, including Douglas Carter Beane's Broadway play The Little Dog Laughed and Charles Busch’s Off-Broadway Die Mo
JULIE HALSTON
Broadway: Love, Loss and What I Wore, Hairspray, Gypsy, The Women, The Man Who Came to Dinner. Off-Broadway: The Divine Sister (Drama Desk Award nomination), The Vagina Monologues
KERRY BUTLER
Broadway: Xanadu (Tony nominee), Catch Me If You Can, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, Rock of Ages, Les Misérables and Blood Brothers.
JACKIE HOFFMAN
Broadway: The Addams Family, Hairspray, Xanadu. Off-Broadway: The Book of Liz (Obie Award), The Sisters Rosensweig, Straightjacket
ANDREW RANNELLS
Broadway: The Book of Mormon (Tony nominee), Jersey Boys, Hairspray.
ANDREW SAMONSKY
Broadway: Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Off-Broadway: Transport Group's Queen of the Mist, Tales of the City, Little Miss Sunshine.
ALEXANDRA SILBER
Broadway: Master Class. Off-Broadway: Transport Group's Hello Again. London: Carousel, Fiddler on The Roof and The Woman in White.
MARY TESTA
Broadway: 42nd Street & On the Town (2-time Tony nominee), Xanadu, Guys and Dolls. Off-Broadway: Transport Group's Queen of the Mist and First Lady Suite (2-time OBIE winner), Tricks the Devil Taught Me, Love, Loss and What I Wore, Measure for Measure (4-time Drama Desk Award nominee)
GIMME A BREAK 2010
Honored playwright A.R. Gurney & columnist Liz Smith
Hosted by Julie Halston
Featuring performances by Kate Baldwin, Charles Busch, Bobby Steggert, and Emily Skinner
Read Playbill's article with photos from the evening, and TheaterMania's preview article here.
A. R. Gurney is one of the most prolific and most produced playwrights in America. His Broadway and Off-Broadway plays include Scenes from American Life, The Dining Room, The Cocktail Hour, Love Letters, Sylvia, Ancestral Voices, Far East, Big Bill, Buffalo Gal, Indian Blood and The Grand Manner. He is also the author of three published novels and several television scripts. Gurney taught literature at M.I.T. for 25 years before devoting himself full time to the theatre. He is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has honorary degrees from Williams College and Buffalo State University. He is the recipient of numerous awards including Drama Desk Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Liz Smith is the legendary New York gossip columnist, most well known for her by-line column in the New York Daily News. Liz is a longtime supporter and advocate of the theatre, and often features productions and theatre artists in her column. She has hosted the Theater Hall of Fame awards and continues to write about and promote the theatre on wowOwow.com, the website she founded for women to talk culture, politics and gossip. Before her success as a columnist, she was a proofreader for Newsweek, a press agent on Broadway, and a producer for Mike Wallace on CBS radio. She appeared on-camera for NBC's Live at Five for 11 years, earning her an Emmy Award in 1985. In September 2000, her memoir, Natural Blonde, was published by Hyperion Press and became a New York Times Bestseller. Liz's daily column can now be read on wowOwow.com, in Daily Variety and in syndication.
Julie Halston
The Divine Sister, Hairspray, Gypsy
Kate Baldwin
Tony nominee - Finian's Rainbow, Wonderful Town, Thoroughly Modern Millie
Charles Busch
Playwright and performer, The Divine Sister, Tony nominee - The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (Best Play), Die Mommie Die
Emily Skinner
Tony nominee - Side Show, Billy Elliot, The Full Monty
Bobby Steggert
Tony nominee - Ragtime, The Grand Manner
GIMME A BREAK 2009
honored Terrence McNally and Joe Mantello
PERFORMANCES BY Chita Rivera, Rosie Perez, Martha Plimpton, Marian Seldes, Stephanie J. Block, Brooks Ashmanskas.
HOSTED BY Hunter Bell & Jeff Bowen [title of show]
To read Playbill's article on the 2009 Gala, click here.
GIMME A BREAK 2008
honored Betty Jacobs and John Doyle
PERFORMANCES BY Celia Keenan-Bolger, Judy Kuhn, Donna McKechnie, Barbara Walsh, and the original Broadway cast of [title of show].
GIMME A BREAK 2007
Performances by Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Danny Burstein, Mario Cantone, Jerry Dixon, Anne Meara, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anne L. Nathan, David Pittu, Seth Rudetsky, and Daphne Rubin Vega.
Past GIMME A BREAK highlights:
- Tommy Tune discussed meeting The Manhattan Rhythm Kings on the subway and then he (and they) did an amazing routine to a Gershwin medley from their act.
- Liz Callaway spoke about working on Baby and then sang “The Story Goes On.”
- Debra Monk described the strange journey of Pump Boys and Dinettes and then sang the song she wrote for the show.
- Boyd Gaines sang “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and spoke about how it was the song he sang for his first musical audition in college for She Loves Me —he ended up playing the busboy.
- Mary Beth Peil talked about how she was the last woman to play Anna with Yul Brynner in The King and I and then she sang “Hello Young Lovers.”
- Victoria Clark described missing her father’s funeral while in A Grand Night For Singing and what it was like going onstage and singing “What’s the Use of Wondering” that night.
- Beth Fowler talked about being in the original A Little Night Music and what it was like when Stephen Sondheim finally finished “Send in the Clowns” and came onstage and played for it the cast—then Beth sang it herself for us.