Chita Rivera, Clive Davis, Tom Viola and More Set for Broadway's Marty Richards Memorial at Edison Ballroom Tonight

At 6:30pm, tonight, April 8th producer Marty Richards' feast of friends and loved ones will gather in celebration of his extremely accomplished life at The Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street) where they will be served a magnificent four-course dinner and be entertained by a star-studded retrospective of show-stopping numbers from Mr. Richards' acclaimed Broadway musicals including Chicago, On The Twentieth Century, The Life, Grand Hotel, Sweeney Todd, La Cage Aux Folles, Sweet Smell Of Success, The Will Rogers Follies and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life.

Chita Rivera will serve as the evening's Mistress of Ceremonies, which is being produced and staged by The Producer Circle Co.'s Michael Milton and Dan Gallagher and will benefit The New York Center for Children. Seth Rudetsky will Musically Direct.

Special tributes will be made by Clive Davis (Five-time Grammy Award winning Music Industry Executive and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee), Tom Viola (Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids) and Michele Herbert (Former President of the Board of The New York Center For Children). Rabbi Adam Jacobs will deliver the evening's invocation.N

Donations: Benefactor Table at $10,000, reserved VIP seating for ten guests. Individual Ticket(s) at $1,000, reserved VIP seating. Individual Tickets at donation of your choice, discretionary seating.

As we all know, Marty embraced friends from all walks of life. In keeping with that spirit, donations are not required to attend this celebration of his life. Although, we do hope that you will be generous in your support of this organization that was so very dear to his heart.

Seating for this Memorial is extremely limited. For ticketing/donation information, contact: info@ProducerCircle.com Although donations are not required, RSVPs are required for attendance.

The New York Center for Children (NYCC) was founded to evaluate, treat and prevent child abuse. Since 1995, NYCC has helped thousands of children heal from the trauma they have experienced. NYCC is a non-profit, privately funded organization that provides quality services in a child-friendly environment, free of charge. For more information, visit www.newyorkcenterforchildren.org.

An accomplished and versatile actress/singer/dancer, Chita Rivera has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and received seven additional Tony nominations. She just concluded a successful run starring in the new Roundabout Theatre Company's production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood on Broadway. She starred in the Broadway and touring productions of The Dancer's Life, a dazzling new musical celebrating her spectacular career, written by Terence McNally and directed by Graciela Daniele. She recreated her starring role in The Visit, the new Kander/Ebb/McNally musical at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA (originally done at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago in 2001). She also starred in the revival of the Broadway musical Nine with Antonio Banderas. She trained as a ballerina (from age 11) before receiving a scholarship to the American School of Ballet from legendary George Balanchine. Chita's first appearance (age 17) was as a principal dancer in Call Me Madam. Her electric performance as Anita in the Broadway premiere of West Side Story (1957) brought her stardom, which she repeated in London. Her career is highlighted by starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, The Rink (Tony Award), Chicago, Jerry's Girls, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award), and the original Broadway casts of Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Seventh Heaven and Mr. Wonderful. On tour: Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Call Me Madam, Threepenny Opera, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me Kate, Zorba, Can-Can with The Rockettes. Chita was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama on August 12, 2009. She received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, DC in December, 2002 and is the first Hispanic ever chosen to receive this award. Chita's current solo CD is entitled And Now I Swing. On October 7, 2013 she will be honored with a star-studded concert on Broadway "Chita: A Legendary Celebration" to Benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at a theatre to be announced. Her most treasured production is her daughter, singer/dancer/choreographer Lisa Mordente.

Martin Richards was the head of the film and theatrical Production Company, The Producer Circle, which he founded with his late wife Mary Lea Johnson in 1976. Their first musical, On The Twentieth Century, directed by Harold Prince, won five Tony Awards. Their next, Sweeney Todd, also directed by Mr. Prince, won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical. They co-produced the Pulitzer Prize winning Crimes Of The Heart, Foxfire, for which Jessica Tandy received the Best Actress Tony Award, Grand Hotel, directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune, which won five Tony Awards, and the hit Off Broadway musicals, March Of The Falsettos and Mayor. Mr. Richards has also co-produced the Obie Award winning Dylan, which starred Rue McClanahan, Bob Fosse's Chicago, which was nominated for eleven Tonys and won Best Musical in London and Los Angeles, The Norman Conquests, which received the Outer Critics Circle Award, La Cage aux Folles, which won six Tonys, including Best Musical, and The Will Rogers Follies, again with Tommy Tune directing and choreographing, which won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, The Best Of Friends, starring Diana Douglas, which he produced with Michael Douglas, Sally Marr ...and her escorts, which starred Joan Rivers, who received a Best Actress Tony Nomination, the Cy Coleman musical The Life, which received Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Awards for Best Musical, and Sweet Smell Of Success, directed by Nicholas Hytner, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, adapted from the film by John Guare, with music and lyrics by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia. He also co-produced the Tony Award winning revival of La Cage aux Folles, which starred Gary Beach and Robert Goulet, and was directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, starring the legendary Chita Rivera, with book by Terrance McNally, directed & choreographed by Graciela Daniele. Mr. Richards' stage productions have received thirty-six Tony Awards, The Pulitzer Prize, seven Outer Critic Circle Awards, and two New York Drama Critics Awards. Mr. Richards' film productions include The Boys From Brazil, which was directed by Franklin Schaffner and starred Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, which starred Jack Nicholson, Fort Apache, The Bronx, which starred Paul Newman, and the musical Chicago, directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones and Richard Gere, which received three Broadcast Critic's Choice Awards, including Best Picture, three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture, The Producers Guild of America Darryl F. Zanuck Award as Best Producer of 2002, the Directors Guild of America Award for Rob Marshall's direction, and six Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 2002. Mr. Richards was a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and served on the Board of Governors of the League of American Theaters and Producers. In 1997, Mayor Giuliani appointed him to a six-year term as a member of The Trust for Cultural Resources of the City of New York. He was also a member of the Mayor's Advisory Council for Theatre. Mr. Richards served on the President's Council for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, and is on the Board of Directors of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS. In 1994, in memory of his wife, he established the Mary Lea Johnson Richards Institute at New York University Medical Center for organ transplantation and research, and in 1995, also in memory of his wife, he co-founded the Children's Advocacy Center of Manhattan, New York City's only non-profit center for abused children. For the past eight years he produced the annual Red Ball, one of New York's premiere charitable events, which benefits both the Institute and the Advocacy Center. Mr. Richards most recently produced the new musical, Big Maybelle: Soul of the Blues starring Lillias White at The Bay Street Theatre this August.