Bobby Cannavale, John Benjamin Hickey & More Set for Celebrity Autobiography, 2/15

The Drama Desk Award-winning Celebrity Autobiography will perform its new edition,Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter on Wednesday, February 15, at 8pm, as a special benefit for SLAM (Sobriety, Learning and Motivation), a board dedicated to the creation of New York's first recovery based high school.  Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter performs at the Triad Theater, 158 West 72 Street. 

Actress ("3rd Rock from the Sun," "The Exes") Kristen Johnston says, "As a long-time cast member of Celebrity Autobiography (and now the author of Guts, a ridiculous, lampoon-worthy memoir of my own!), as well as the founder of SLAM, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to combine the two into a benefit.  After all, nothing warms my heart quite as much as watching New Yorkers get drunk and laugh their asses off, all while raising money to help keep our teens sober."

She adds: "There are over 35 sober highs schools flourishing all across the United States.  Statistics prove that these schools are saving countless teenagers from the miserable and deadly life of an addict.  So why doesn't the greatest and most influential city in the world, New York, have one?"

Statistics also prove that teens returning to their old schools after receiving treatment face a much greater threat of relapse than those who are lucky enough to attend a recovery school. SLAM is dedicated to providing New York's recovering teens with the opportunity to receive a top notch education in an environment designed to meet their unique needs. 

The cast for the benefit performance is Bobby Cannavale, Andy Cohen, Rachel Dratch, America Ferrera, Santino Fontana, John Benjamin Hickey, Kristen Johnston, Natasha Lyonne, Eugene Pack, and Dayle Reyfel.

Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter features selections from books by Justin Bieber, "The Situation," Madonna, Tiger Woods, Susan Lucci, David Hasselhoff, Geraldo Rivera, Melissa Gilbert, Patti LuPone, Kenny Loggins, Destiny's Child, The Jonas Brothers, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Diana Ross, David Cassidy,Britney Spears, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eminem, and VAnna White. 

Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter also includes special 'celebrity mash-ups'-Cher, Barbra Streisand, Neil Sedaka, Dolly Parton, and Celine Dion all expressing their passion for food; Sylvester Stallone and Tommy Lee on working out and working 'it' out; LL Cool J, Miley Cyrus, and Ricky Martin addressing who they "really are;" Tallulah Bankhead, Kathleen Turner, and Ethel Merman sharing the secrets of 'diva-dom;" and Lauren Bacall and Carol Channing recreating the suspense of Tony night.

No version of Celebrity Autobiography would be complete without some returning classics, including the infamous memoirs of Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher, and Debbie Reynolds, which are edited together to create a Rashomon-esque playlet, and the hilarious Burt Reynolds-Loni Anderson he said/she said saga.

Celebrity Autobiography and Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chapter, created by Eugene Pack and developed by Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel, feature a line-up of rotating performers who read-in both solo and ensemble pieces- the actual words and stories written by the famous and the infamous in their autobiographies. 

Celebrity Autobiography has recently toured nationally and internationally with acclaimed performances in Pittsburgh, New Orleans, San Francisco, Chicago, Arizona, Austin, Miami, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Boston, Sydney, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as an ongoing production at Los Angeles's Broad Stage.  The show also recently opened at London's Leicester Square Theatre where it received rave reviews and plays to sell-out audiences.

The original Celebrity Autobiography has played to sell-out audiences and rave reviews in New York since its opening in September 2008 when Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called the show "big-yuks entertainment" and a "merry compendium of the witlessness and wisdom of the rich and famous."  Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News called it a "potent comic cocktail…you weep with laughter."  The New Yorker called it "inspired."  Sam Thielman of Variety wrote, "Audience members hyperventilate.  It should lead a long and happy life."  Michael Riedel of the New York Post called it "the funniest show in town, hands down."  And Entertainment Weekly said that Celebrity Autobiography is "one of New York's most buzzed-about shows" while New Yorkmagazine called it "brilliant."  The show has been featured by numerous media outlets, including ABC's "The View" and "Nightline,"  NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly," CBS's "Sunday Morning," NPR's "Morning Edition,"  CNN'S "American Morning," New York 1, WNBC'S "News for New York" at 11pm, and Bravo's "A-List Awards."

Tickets for the special benefit performance of Celebrity Autobiography: The Next Chaptermay be purchased by phoning (855) SLAMNYC (855-752-6692) or by emailing events@slamnyc.org.  For more information about Celebrity Autobiography, please visit www.celebrityautobiography.com.  For more info about SLAM, please visit their Facebook page.