A host of film and theater celebrities will celebrate the posthumous release of Remember How I Love You: Love Letters from an Extraordinary Marriage, Jerry and Elaine Orbach's autobiographical memoir recounting their thirty year marriage, at a once-in-a-lifetime reunion of the couple's colleagues at The Snapple Theater Center on Monday, November 9, 2009 at 5:30 PM.
Each morning before leaving their Hell's Kitchen apartment to report to the set of Law & Order, Jerry wrote Elaine a short poem for her to find upon waking. The poems were humorous, sweet and topical, focusing on the couple's morning rituals, their daily routine - whatever was on Jerry's mind. Combined, they tell the story of a marriage full of life and love. Elaine stored the poems in a soup tureen given to them by David Merrick and upon Jerry's death in 2004 began gathering her favorites into the collection that would eventually become Remember How I Love You. Elaine herself passed away unexpectedly on April 1, 2009 just as the book was completed.
At the event, a number of Jerry and Elaine's colleagues and friends will read select poems from the book including Alan Alda, Kelly Bishop, Lorraine Bracco, Jesse L. Martin, Donna McKechnie, Chita Rivera and Jerry Stiller, with more names to be announced. In addition, copies of the book signed by the participating celebrities will be sold with all proceeds benefitting Bideawee and The Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration, Jerry and Elaine's favorite charities.
A limited number of advance premium tickets are now on sale and can be purchased for $50 each - with all proceeds benefitting Bideawee and The Eye-Bank - by calling The Snapple Theater Center box office at (212) 921-7862. In addition, 100 free tickets will be distributed to the public at The Snapple Theater Center box office beginning at 10 AM on the day of the event, with a maximum number of two tickets per person allowed. The Snapple Theater Center is located at 210 West 50th Street at Broadway.
The Snapple Theater Center is a multi-theater entertainment complex located on the corner of 50th Street and Broadway in the heart of Times Square, New York City. The complex opened on May 22, 2006 and is sponsored by the beverage company Snapple. It is a 20,000-square-foot, state of the art entertainment center consisting of two theaters with a total seating capacity of 398, rehearsal studios, contemporary lobbies, WiFi, two bars with cabaret-style seating and two merchandise booths. The Jerry Orbach Theater currently houses The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical. The theater was so-named to commemorate Orbach's starring role in the original 1960 cast of The Fantasticks. An as-yet-unnamed theater houses Perfect Crime, the longest-running play in the history of New York theater. The Snapple Theater Center is part of Snapple's ongoing commitment to enriching the lives of New York residents and the millions of visitors who flock to the city each year.
Equally renowned for his work on stage, screen and television, Jerry Orbach's impact on American popular culture is indelible. His career began Off Broadway when he starred as El Gallo in the original company of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks, which opened in 1960 and would go on to play 17,162 performances and become the longest-running musical in the world. Other stage credits include The Threepenny Opera, Carnival!, Guys and Dolls (for which he received a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Sky Masterson), Promises, Promises (for which he received the Tony Award), Chicago (another Tony nomination), Annie Get Your Gun, 42nd Street and The Cradle Will Rock. His film and television credits include Murder, She Wrote, The Law and Harry McGraw, Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City, Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, Someone to Watch Over Me, Chinese Coffee, Beauty and the Beast (voice of Lumiere), Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, Mr. Saturday Night and the role of Frances "Baby" Houseman's father in the generation-defining hit Dirty Dancing. Jerry achieved icon status when he starred for twelve seasons as the lovably cynical Detective Lennie Briscoe on NBC's Law & Order.
