Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere Donate $1.5 Million to Roundabout Theatre Company

Roundabout Theatre Company and the Board of Directors thank Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere for their generous $1.5 million gift to support Roundabout's 50th Anniversary Campaign, and more specifically, the Musical Theatre Fund, to support the development and production of musicals on RTC stages. As recognition for this generous gift, Roundabout has named the Sondheim Theatre lounge in their honor. The space itself is being donated, as is much of the work going into its creation. In February, Roundabout announced the campaign with the following goals: 'Allow for the continued growth of theatrical programming and artistic risk-taking to better serve the art form, an expanded commitment to the NYC public school students and their teachers, and sustained state-of-the-art theatres.' The Kors & Le Pere gift will contribute to these endeavors.

"We are deeply grateful for Michael and Lance's commitment to Roundabout's 50th Anniversary Campaign. They have been generous supporters of Roundabout over the last decade, and I am so honored that Michael and Lance have made this incredible gift. It will ensure that Roundabout can remain at the forefront of American Theatre, continuing our mission to entertain, educate and inspire. This gift will also help us create a dedicated space at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre to host our loyal patrons," notes Todd Haimes, Roundabout's Artistic Director/CEO.

"We are lifelong theatre enthusiasts and we are enormous fans of the amazing work produced by Roundabout Theatre Company. We are thrilled to help sustain the company's future, and to underwrite a new patron's lounge in honor of the singularly brilliant genius of Stephen Sondheim," note Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere.

The lounge will be named the Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere Lounge. Through design of the space, Michael and Lance will pay tribute to Stephen Sondheim and his work on Roundabout's stages. Design is being conceived by Frank Webb at White Webb and will comply with the building's LEED-gold certification. When construction is complete in 2017, VIP Lounges will be available in all Roundabout venues, and enjoyed by Roundabout's most generous supporters, including Chairman's Circle, Artistic Director's Circle, and Corporate Club members.

A rendering of the lounge is available here: Kors LePere Sondheim Rendering Roundabout gratefully acknowledges Douglas Durst, The Durst Organization and Bank of America for facilitating this new space.

The 50th Anniversary Campaign was publically launched in February 2016; with Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere's commitment, Roundabout has surpassed $40 million raised towards a total goal of $50 million. When complete, the Campaign will fund vital financial reserves to sustain Roundabout's artistic excellence, innovative audience engagement and effective community outreach well into the future.

As the largest single producer of Stephen Sondheim's extraordinary work, Roundabout has mounted six Sondheim musicals and held more than a dozen workshops of his work. In 2010, Roundabout successfully completed fundraising efforts to rename the Henry Miller's Theatre as the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in honor of Mr. Sondheim's 80th birthday and in recognition of the tremendous impact of his work on the Great American Musical.

As part of Roundabout's $50 Million Anniversary Campaign, there are other unique naming opportunities available, including the legendary Studio 54 Theatre, and the Penthouse Lobby, available to all visitors of the American Airlines Theatre. For more information, visit roundabout50th.org.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays, musicals, and new works on its five stages, each of which is specifically designed to enhance the needs of Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design, is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. The Stephen Sondheim Theatre offers a state of the art LEED certified Broadway theatre in which to stage major large-scale musical revivals. Together these distinctive homes serve to enhance Roundabout's work on each of its stages.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 50th Anniversary Season celebrates the company's numerous accomplishments and vision for the future with bold new productions of classic plays, a revival of the Roundabout's first musical, and new work by some of the country's most exciting young talent. Founded in 1965, Roundabout Theatre Company has grown from a small 150-seat theatre in a converted Chelsea supermarket basement to become one of the nation's most influential not-for-profit theatre companies, as well as one of New York City's leading cultural institutions. Roundabout has been recognized with 36 Tonys, 50 Drama Desks, 59 Outer Critics Circle, 12 Obie and 18 Lucille Lortel Awards for its work on five stages, reaching more than 700,000 theatergoers and employing hundreds of artists each year. Bank of America is a proud 50th Anniversary Season sponsor - a partnership that makes possible Roundabout's many productions and not-for-profit initiatives during this landmark year.

Roundabout's current 50th anniversary season in 2015-2016 includes Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, directed by Gordon Greenberg with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin; Diane Lane, Chuck Cooper, Tavi Gevinson, John Glover, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Harold Perrineau and Joel Grey in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, with a new version by Stephen Karam, directed by Simon Godwin; Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett, directed by Michael Mayer; and the national tour of Sam Mendes & Rob Marshall's Tony Award-winning production of Cabaret.

The 2016-2017 Roundabout Underground season includes Kingdom Come, a new play by Jenny Rachel Weiner, directed by Kip Fagan; and On the Exhale, a new play by Martín Zimmerman, directed by Leigh Silverman.

Roundabout's season in 2017 will include John Turturro, Tony Shalhoub, Jessica Hecht and Danny DeVito in Arthur Miller's The Price, directed by Terry Kinney; If I Forget by Steven Levenson, directed by Daniel Sullivan; Marvin's Room by Scott McPherson, directed by Anne Kauffman; Napoli, Brooklyn by Meghan Kennedy,directed by Gordon Edelstein.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride