Janney and Channing to Celebrate Wasserstein, 11/28

The Glimmerglass Opera will salute late great playwright Wendy Wasserstein on November 28th, in an evening featuring the talents of Stockard Channing and Allison Janney.  The evening will take place at the Colony Club (564 Park Ave.) on November 28th.

Channing and Janney will perform readings from the playwright's works in "An Uncommon Woman: A Celebration of Wendy Wasserstein and Music," and there will also be excerpts from the one-act opera The Festival of Regrets and from the musical Pamela's First Musical--both for which Wasserstein penned the libretto/book.  Alumni of Glimmerglass Opera's Young American Artists Program and members of the Mount Holyoke Chamber Singers will perform the latter.

Wasserstein, who died of complications from lymphoma on January 30th, 2005, won much acclaim over the course of almost three decades for writing plays that with wit, warmth and insight, confronted a range of feminist issues--the conflict of career versus marriage and motherhood, the struggle for women to achieve equality at work, and the joys and tribulations of love and sex, among them. Her plays included Uncommon Women and Others, The Sisters Rosensweig, Isn't It Romantic, An American Daughter and The Heidi Chronicles, which is commonly regarded as her masterpiece and won both a Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Channing, who plays Abbey Bartlet on "The West Wing," won a Tony Award for her work in Joe Egg, and received nominations for The Lion in Winter, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves.  Film credits include Grease, the film version of "Six Degrees," Heartburn and Anything Else.  Janney received a Tony nomination for her work in A View from the Bridge, and also appeared on Broadway in Present Laughter.  The actress, who has also been seen in numerous Off-Broadway plays, currently plays C.J. Cregg on "The West Wing."  Film credits include Finding Nemo, The Hours, American Beauty and the upcoming Hairspray.

Visit www.glimmerglass.org for tickets and more information.