Leslie Uggams and Ted Chapin to be Honored at the 30th Annual Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala

The York Theatre Company will honor Tony Award-winning musical theater icon Leslie Uggams (Hallelujah, Baby!, Anything Goes, Thoroughly Modern Millie) with the 2022 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater and Ted Chapin with The York Theatre Company Founders' Award at the 30th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala, to be held on Monday evening, November 14, 2022 at The Edison Rooftop (223 West 46th Street).

The celebratory evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 6:00pm and a seated dinner at 7:00pm, followed by a concert and award ceremony at 8:00pm. Guests with VIP tickets will have the opportunity to take photos with the honorees and enjoy other perks throughout the evening. Michael Unger (The York's former Associate Artistic Director and current Artistic Director of Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee) is set to direct the evening's celebration. For additional information, pricing, and reservations, please visit yorktheatre.org/support/oscar-hammerstein or contact Nick Gerrity at ngerrity@yorktheatre.org.

James Morgan, The York's Producing Artistic Director, noted, "Two show business trailblazers-one on stages and screens of all sizes, the other behind the scenes-Leslie Uggams and Ted Chapin have had tremendous impact on musical theater of the last half-century, and we are thrilled to be honoring them."

The Oscar Hammerstein Award is named in honor of the legendary lyricist and librettist who helped shape American musical theater through his collaborations with a number of different composers and writers. His contributions to such landmark musicals as Show Boat, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and Carousel are a legacy for all time. The award was created in 1988 by Janet Hayes Walker, Founding Artistic Director of The York Theatre Company, and is presented with the endorsement of the Hammerstein family and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Its purpose is to recognize significant outstanding achievement in musical theater and is presented at a gala evening held for the benefit of The York Theatre Company.

Past recipients of the Oscar Hammerstein Award 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, Tony Walton, Joseph Stein, George S. Irving, Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick, Thomas Meehan, Barbara Cook, Paul Gemignani, Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, Angela Lansbury, Joel Grey, Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt, Susan Stroman, André De Shields, and most recently Richard Maltby, Jr. & David Shire.

Leslie Uggams

(2022 Oscar Hammerstein Award Recipient) is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and recording artist whose landmark career began at the age of nine, opening for Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald at The Apollo Theater in Harlem. As a teenager, she went on to break barriers as a series regular on "Sing Along with Mitch" and made her Broadway debut at the age of 24 in the groundbreaking musical Hallelujah, Baby!, earning Theatre World and Tony awards for her performance. Since then, she has starred on Broadway in Blues in the Night, Her First Roman, Jerry's Girls, Anything Goes, King Hedley II (Tony Award nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie, and On Golden Pond with James Earl Jones. Perhaps best known for her stirring portrayal of Kizzy in the landmark TV mini-series "Roots" (Critics Choice Award, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations), Leslie, now in her seventh decade in show business, continues to create memorable roles. Most notably, she can be seen in the Deadpool movies opposite Ryan Reynolds; on television in "New Amsterdam" and "Empire"; in the streaming comic horror series "The Bite"; and in the upcoming Sundance Grand Jury Award-winning film Nanny, soon to be released on Amazon Prime. Visit www.leslieuggams.com or follow her on Facebook and Twitter @LeslieUggams and on Instagram @LeslieUggams1.

The York Theatre Company Founders' Award recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact on the sustainability of the arts. Past recipients of the award include Janet Hayes Walker, the Founding Artistic Director of the York, W. David McCoy, Sarah Tod Smith, Molly Grose, Robert Goldberg, Gerald F. Fisher, Betty Cooper Wallerstein, Riki Kane Larimer, and Elisa Stein.

Ted Chapin

(2022 York Theatre Company Founders' Award Recipient) was President of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization for forty years. Under his auspices, eight Broadway revivals won the Tony Award, from On Your Toes to Daniel Fish's controversial Oklahoma!, and The Sound of Music Live! and a multi-racial Cinderella were aired on TV. His early career in the theater included production or directorial assistant on the Broadway premieres of The Unknown Soldier and His Wife, The Rothschilds, The Sunshine Boys, and Follies, about which he wrote Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical 'Follies', a revised edition of which has just been published. He produced two acclaimed seasons of Lyrics & Lyricists at 92Y and serves on many boards, including the American Theatre Wing. He hosts the NJTV program American Songbook at NJPAC.

Michael Unger

(Director, 2022 Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala) is the Artistic Director of Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee, WI. For Skylight this season he will be directing A Jolly Holiday and Noises Off. For six years, he was the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Education for The York Theatre Company. He was also the Producing Artistic Director of NewArts, a performing arts and character development initiative started with a local father in response to the Sandy Hook elementary school tragedy, for which he directed a dozen productions working with over 600 area children. Credits for The York Theatre include the Oscar Hammerstein Award Ceremonies honoring Susan Stroman (2018), André De Shields (2019), and Richard Maltby, Jr. & David Shire (2021), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and the Mufti presentations of Big: The Musical, Milk and Honey, and Knickerbocker Holiday. Other directing credits include A Christmas Carol (18 years at McCarter, three years at NewArts), Two Point Oh (Off-Broadway, NYT Critics' Pick), Time Stands Still (Cape Cod Chronicle Best of 2015), My Sister in This House (Deaf West, Ovation Recommended), Grease, Crimes of the Heart, and new versions of The Happy Time and The Rink. He has directed fourteen operas, two of which are available on DVD. World premieres include Caligula (NYMF, Best of Fest), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and A ROCKIN' Midsummer Night's Dream (featured in the documentary film Midsummer in Newtown). He is married to actress Janet Metz; their favorite collaboration is twins Phoebe and Nathaniel.

COVID NOTE: For the safety of all, COVID policies established by the CDC and WHO will be strictly enforced and can be found at yorktheatre.org.

The York Theatre Company is the only theater 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 five decades, York's intimate, imaginative style of producing both original and classic musicals has resulted in critical acclaim and recognition from artists and audiences alike. Under the guidance of Producing Artistic Director James Morgan since 1997, The York has focused on new musicals in its Mainstage Series-most of them world, American, or New York premieres-by some of the field's most esteemed creators and has also helped launch the careers of many talented new writers. Well over 40 cast recordings from York Theatre Company productions are now available on CD, including its acclaimed revival of Closer Than Ever (2013 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival); commercial transfers of such York premieres as The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!), Souvenir (Tony Award Nomination for actress Judy Kaye), and Jolson & Company, and revivals of Pacific Overtures and Sweeney Todd (four Tony Nominations including Best Revival) have all showcased the importance of The York and its programs. Recent York productions have included Anything Can Happen in the Theater, Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation, Midnight at the Never Get and A Taste of Things to Come. The critically acclaimed musical Yank! received its Off-Broadway debut at The York in 2010, and subsequently to rave reviews in London, as did York's Rothschild & Sons. The hit musical Cagney received its York premiere in 2015, transferring to The Westside Theatre for over 15 months. In 2017, Desperate Measures received a total of 15 award nominations (and three wins) that included "Best Musical" from the Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Off-Broadway Alliance and subsequently transferred across town to New World Stages. The York is the recipient of a special Drama Desk Award for "Developing and Producing New Musicals" and, more recently, a special Outer Critics Circle Award for "50 Years of Producing New and Classic Musicals." The York is currently producing at The Theatre at St. Jeans due to a NYC water main flood in their home of 30 years at Saint Peter's Church in January 2021. An encore limited engagement of Cheek to Cheek: Irving Berlin in Hollywood, produced in association with Riki Kane Larimer, is running September 13th to October 16th, to be followed by the New York premiere of Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust Road.

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