Graae, Kudisch, Cook, Pedi Added To Lineup Of Stars Honoring Bock & Harnick 11/23 With The Lifetime Achievement In Musical Theatre Award

The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; W. David McCoy, Chairman of the Board) will honor Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway songwriters Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick with the 18th Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre on Monday, November 23rd. The award will be presented to them by Alice Hammerstein Mathias, daughter of Oscar Hammerstein II. Terry Berliner directs, with Mark Janas serving as musical director. Performers coming out to honor Bock & Harnick include Tom Bosley (created the title role Fiorello! which opened on November 23rd, 1959), Barbara Cook (original cast of Bock & Harnick's She Loves Me), Laura Marie Duncan (York's Mufti of Bock & Harnick's The Body Beautiful), Jason Graae (Forever Plaid), Josh Grisetti (Enter Laughing), Stephen Mo Hanan (Cats), Marc Kudisch (revival of The Apple Tree, Harnick's A Wonderful Life, ), Judy Kuhn (A Wonderful Life, She Loves Me revival), Howard McGillin (She Loves Me revival), Christine Pedi (Sirius Radio), Emily Skinner (Side Show, The Full Monty), and the Honeybees of the Savannah College of Art & Design.

The concert celebration honoring the legendary composing team will be held at The Racquet & Tennis Club (370 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets). The evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m., featuring a silent auction, followed by the concert and award ceremony at 8 p.m. For more information, visit yorktheatre.org or call 212-935-5824 x15.

Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick met in 1956 through mutual friend Jack Cassidy and soon began work on their first Broadway musical, The Body Beautiful. That show drew the attention of Harold Prince and George Abbott, who asked them to write music and lyrics for a musical based on the life of New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Fiorello!, which opened November 23rd, 1959, was a smash hit and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical. Their other productions include Tenderloin (1960), She Loves Me (1963), The Apple Tree (1966) and The Rothschilds (1970). Their biggest success, Fiddler on the Roof, opened on Broadway in 1964 and ran for 3,242 performances. Fiddler won 10 Tony Awards including Best Original Score and Best Musical, and was adapted as an Academy Award-winning film in 1971. It has seen four major Broadway revivals (1976, 1981, 1990 and 2004). Bock and Harnick were inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. The York Theatre Company's first musical was a revival of She Loves Me in 1976, and it produced a revival of The Apple Tree in 1987. York's Musicals in Mufti revival of The Body Beautiful was recorded in 2007 and it is the show's official cast album.

The Oscar Hammerstein Award is named in honor of the legendary lyricist who helped shape the American musical theatre through his collaborations with a number of different composers and writers. The Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala is the major fundraising event of The York Theatre Company, and is presented with the endorsement of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and the Hammerstein Family. Past recipients include Stephen Sondheim, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Harold Prince, Cy Coleman, Charles Strouse, Arthur Laurents, Jerry Herman, Stephen Schwartz, Peter Stone, David Merrick, John Kander & Fred Ebb, Terrence McNally, Cameron Mackintosh, Carol Channing, George S. Irving, Tony Walton, and Joseph Stein.

The York Theatre Company is the only theatre in New York City - and one of very few in the world - dedicated to developing and fully producing new musicals and preserving neglected, notable shows from the past. For over three decades, the York's intimate, imaginative style of producing both new and classic musicals has resulted in critical acclaim, multiple awards, and acclamation from artists and audiences alike. In 2006, a special Drama Desk Award was presented to the York for its Òvital contributions to theater by developing and producing new musicals.

Gala Honorary Committee includes Patti Bock, Ted Chapin, Barbara Cook, Nancy Ford Charles, Alene Daniels, Margery Harnick, Anita Jaffe, Lynn Lane, Richard Maltby, Jr., Joe Masteroff, Alice Hammerstein Mathias, Harold Prince, Carl Reiner, Ted Snowdon, Elisa Stein, Joseph Stein, Richard Ticktin, and Tony Walton. Leslie Hodges and Margery Jassy serve as Benefit Co-Chairs, along with their committee: Brian Blythe, Bernard Carragher, Gerald F. Fisher, Edith Hall Friedheim, David J Gersten, Robert Goldberg, Austin & Judy Graham, Allen Greenberg, Molly Pickering Grose, Jim Kierstead, Jeff Landsman, Riki Kane Larimer, Everett Jassy, W. David & Millie McCoy, James Morgan, Jeffrey A. Ross, M.D., Joan Ross Sorkin, Connie Tirschwell, Charles & Lise Walker, Betty Cooper Wallerstein, and Dan Whitten.

For tickets and more information, visit yorktheatre.org or call 212-935-5824 x15.

Photo credit: Genevieve Rafter Keddy