Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy, Kara Lindsay & More to Join 2024 WP Theater Gala

WP Theater has revealed the presenters and performers for its 2024 Annual Gala, celebrating extraordinary achievement by Women+ artists and industry leaders. The gala will feature performances from comedy magician Rachel Wax,  Joshua Henry, Hannah Cruz, Hawley Gould, Somi Kakoma, as well as a thrilling performance from leading women of Disney on Broadway - featuring Sonya Balsara, Mandy Gonzalez, Aisha Jackson, Pearl Khwezi, and Kara Lindsay. Presenters for this year’s gala include Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Caissie Levy, Leigh Silverman, Rachel Sussman, Lisa Timmel, and Whitney White. 

As previously announced, this year’s gala will honor Tony Award winners Sutton Foster (Sweeney Todd, The Music Man) and LaChanze (The Color Purple, Once on This Island), along with Disney Theatrical Group Executive Vice President Anne Quart. The ceremony will take place at The Edison Ballroom on Monday, May 20, 2024.  

This year’s Gala is especially anticipated, as it marks a celebration of the overwhelming amount of WP Lab and mainstage alumni representation on Broadway and at The Tony Awards this year. WP will proudly toast their Lab and mainstage artists nominated for Tony Awards this season - Bekah Brunstetter (The Notebook book writer; WP: Playwrights Lab Alum),  Anne Kauffman (Mary Jane director; WP: Director's Lab Alum, director,
Sundown, Yellow Moon), Lila Neugebauer (Appropriate director; WP Directors Lab Alum),
Leigh Silverman (Suffs director; WP: director, Bright Half Life), Rachel Sussman (Suffs
producer; WP: Producer's Lab Alum, WP Board Member), Danya Taymor (The Outsiders director; WP:  Director's Lab Alum),  Whitney White (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding director; WP: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord). These artists are a testament to WP's role as a springboard for the finest Women+ talent working in the theater today. 

The evening will be hosted by actress, singer, recording and performing artist, and star of the powerful Broadway musical Lempicka, Eden Espinosa. Lotus Productions Executive Producer and V-Day Campaigns Director Tony Montenieri will serve as gala chairperson and Disney Theatrical Group, Thomas Schumacher & Matthew White, The Shubert Organization, and Lisa Timmel & David Markus will serve as the gala vice chairs.  

Each year, WP honors truly outstanding Women+ who have taken risks, pushed limits, and broken ground in a wide variety of fields, celebrating their unique accomplishments. Since its inception, the event has paid homage to luminaries such as Gloria Steinem, Whoopi Goldberg, Debra Messing, Audra McDonald, Vanessa Williams, Eve Ensler, Dame Judi Dench, Kerry Washington, Vanessa Redgrave, and Chita Rivera, to name just a few. WP Theater’s Annual Gala delivers an inspiring, entertaining, star-studded night - featuring performances and special messages from the brightest Broadway & Off-Broadway talent - in celebration of the accomplishments of vital Women+ across many disciplines in New York and beyond.   

For information regarding tickets to the GALA, visit https://wptheater.org/gala-2024.