Karen Ziemba, Walter Willison and More Star in TWO BY TWO: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY VIRTUAL CONCERT

Tony Award nominee Walter Willison and Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba will star in Two By Two: The 50th Anniversary Virtual Concert to benefit The Actors Fund. The 1970 Broadway musical has music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Peter Stone. The virtual holiday event will premiere at 2:00 PM on Christmas Day, Friday, December 25 through Monday, December 28 on facebook.com/Metr0politanZoom and continue on facebook.com/TheaterPizzazz and Sandi Durell's TheaterPizzazz YouTube Channel where it can be viewed for FREE. Donations to The Actors Fund in any amount are strongly encouraged.

Two By Two original Broadway cast member Walter Willison (Grand Hotel, Pippin), who received a Tony Award nomination and Theatre World Award for creating the role of youngest son Japheth, will direct the virtual reading and star as Noah opposite Tony Award winner and two-time Drama Desk Award winner Karen Ziemba (Prince of Broadway, Curtains, Contact). Also starring are Nikita Burshteyn (Mark Saltzman's Romeo & Bernadette), Frank Calamaro (Two by Two directed by Martin Charnin for Musicals in Mufti), Marcy DeGonge Manfredi (Phantom of the Opera, Cats), N'Kenge (Caroline or Change, Motown the Musical, Sondheim On Sondheim), Michael Notardonato (Mark Saltzman's Romeo & Bernadette), and Sophia Tzougros, with a special introduction by Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. Fred Barton is musical director, David Giardina is editor, and Mitchell Bloom (The Metropolitan Opera, Grand Hotel) is costume consultant.

Legendary composer Richard Rodgers (Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I) entered his seventh decade of writing for the theatre with this fresh retelling of the Biblical story of Noah, based on the play The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets. This show about God deciding to destroy the world to save it, because people are not taking care of themselves, each other, the animals, or the planet, is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when it was written, during the era of civil rights marches and protests against the senseless war in Vietnam. The musical tells the story of Noah and his family as if they might be a dysfunctional family living in Brooklyn today, and the building of the ark is only the first of Noah's many daunting challenges in a journey that isn't always smooth sailing. At its heart, Two By Two is a show about family and about love.

Two By Two opened at The Imperial Theater on November 10, 1970, starring Danny Kaye, Joan Copeland, Walter Willison, Marilyn Cooper, Harry Goz, Michael Karm, Madeline Kahn, and Tricia O'Neil. Conceived and Directed by Joe Layton, the show ran for 351 performances.