Cynthia Nixon & Kevin Jennings to be Honored at A TECTONIC CABARET Featuring Jane Krakowski & More

Hosted by Tony Award-winner Jane Krakowski, Tectonic Theater Project’s annual benefit, A Tectonic Cabaret, will take place on Monday, October 2, 2023 with a cocktail hour at 6:30 PM and performances at 7:30 PM at Sony Hall (235 W 46th Street). Directed by Timothy Koch with musical direction by Anna Ebbesen, A Tectonic Cabaret will feature an all-star cast of Broadway's best who will take to the stage to perform a variety of popular musical selections. Tickets are now on sale here. 

The evening will honor Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress and activist, Cynthia Nixon who will receive the inaugural Jane Fonda Award, as an artist who has demonstrated a deep commitment to activism for social justice. Nixon earned Tony Awards for her turns in Rabbit Hole and The Little Foxes. She won Emmy Awards for her performances on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and HBO’s “Sex and the City,” where she played workaholic lawyer Miranda Hobbes – a role she now reprises on “And Just Like That.” A native New Yorker, Nixon has remained heavily involved in politics throughout her career. She is a vocal advocate on issues including LGBT equality, public education, and reproductive rights. 

Award-winning author, educator and CEO of Lambda Legal, Kevin Jennings will receive the James C. Hormel “Spirit of Tectonic” Award. Jennings has been a leader in the LGBTQ movement since 1988 when he helped students create the nation’s first Gay-Straight Alliance club. He founded GLSEN, the first organization dedicated to fighting anti-LGBTQ bias in K-12 schools, and served as the Assistant Secretary of Education for Safe & Drug Free Schools under the Obama administration. Jennings has produced multiple documentary films, authored seven books, and served as the Founding Board Chair of Tectonic Theater Project from 2008-2013. 

“We are incredibly proud to honor Kevin Jennings and Cynthia Nixon at this year’s A Tectonic Cabaret,” said Moisés Kaufman, Founding Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project. “Their tireless activism and advocacy for social justice have made an indelible mark on our society. Both Kevin and Cynthia exemplify the mission of Tectonic Theater Project by using their platforms to shed light on critical social issues and inspire meaningful change. We are honored to recognize their remarkable contributions.” 

The evening will feature performances by a star-studded cast of Broadway favorites, including Tony Award-winner Joaquina Kalukango, Jelani Remy, Meghan Picerno, John McGinty, Chloe Davis, Nick Lehane, Grace McLean and Donna Carnow from Tectonic’s Drama Desk Award-winning production of Seven Deadly Sins. 

The A Tectonic Cabaret Benefit Committee is chaired by Aaron Walton and includes Deborah Barrera, Ruth Hendel, Michael P.N.A. Hormel, Gretchen Tibbits, Scott Johnson, and Tim Wu. Sponsors include Perry McKay, Michael P.N.A. Hormel, Mindy and Jon Gray, Joan Solotar, Tom Cooper at Douglas Elliman, Mark Gude and Paul Sekhri, and Constellation Brands.  The Host Committee includes Deborah Barrera, David Goldman and Debbie Bisno, Kay and Bill Gurtin, John Hadity, Ruth and Stephen Hendel, Mellody Hobson, Michael P.N.A.Hormel, Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett, Lisa Kohl and Ricardo Hornos, Alan Kornberg and Harold Koda, Erika Kramer and Susannah Schoolman, Marianne and Steve Mills, Heather Randall, Richard Sheehan and David Clarke, Jayne Sherman, George Slowik Jr. and Brian Callaway, Amy Stursberg, Gretchen Tibbits, Barbara Whitman, Lois Whitman, Tim Wu and Eric Murphy.

Tickets for A Tectonic Cabaret start at $250 and are available online at TectonicTheaterProject.org. Proceeds from the cabaret will benefit Tectonic Theater Project’s development of new works and education through the  Moment Work Institute. 

Based in New York City and guided by founder and artistic director Moisés Kaufman, Tectonic Theater Project develops new plays using the company’s trademarked theater-making method, Moment Work, and through a rigorous process of research and collaboration in a laboratory environment. Since its founding in 1991 the company has created and staged over twenty plays and musicals, including Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Laramie Project, Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, the Tony Award-winning 33 Variations, and the Drama Desk Award-winning Seven Deadly Sins. Tectonic Theater Project’s newest world-premiere plays include Here There Are Blueberries, which just completed a critically acclaimed run at Shakespeare Theatre Company and is set to play New York Theatre Workshop this spring, and Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard written and directed by Moisés Kaufman based on Jonathan Jakubowicz’s best-selling book will run in a co-production with Miami New Drama October 17 - November 12, 2023.