NY City Center Honors Douglas S. Cramer on May 12

New York City Center will hold its annual Spring Benefit celebration honoring Douglas S. Cramer on Monday, May 12, at New York City Center (55th Street between 6th & 7th Ave). The Gala will be co-chaired by Sherry and Stephen Jacobs; Monica and Raymond A. Lamontagne ; Patricia W. and Jesse Robert Lovejoy; Judy and Fred Wilpon.  Mr. Cramer will be presented with the Fiorello H. LaGuardia Award, given for distinguished service to New York City and to City Center.

Douglas S. Cramer serves as President of the Douglas S. Cramer Foundation, which he created to preserve and promote contemporary art.  The Foundation helped underwrite many traveling exhibitions, including those of Frank Stella, Richard Artschwager, Jim Dine and David Salle, among others, and has donated almost 1200 works of art to museums around the world.  As a founder of Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, he was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1983, and served as its President from 1990 – 1993. He has been a Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1993, and heads MOMA'S Acquisition Committee for the Department of Painting and Sculpture, as well as being on the Film Committee and on the International Council. He has served on the boards of American Ballet Theater, L.A. Music Center's Opera Company and the L.A. Center Theatre Group.  Cramer is President of The Cramer Company, which develops and produces quality television programming including series, movies and mini series.  Among the many shows he has developed or produced are "Batman," "The Odd Couple," Love American Style," "The Brady Bunch," "Dynasty," "Vegas" and "Mission Impossible."

The May 12 benefit will begin with cocktails at 6PM, followed by a performance of the New York City Center Encores! production of No, No, Nanette, the final performance of the 2008 encore season, at 7PM.  Dinner will be held in the City Center Atrium at 9:30PM.

"No, No, Nanette is a light-hearted tale of millionaires, misunderstood wives, bathing beauties, wanton women and flappers.  Nanette (Mara Davi), a young Manhattan heiress, tries to experience life by running away to the big, bad and bawdy town of Atlantic City, only to be followed by her straight-laced, tap-dancing fiancé (Shonn Wiley), her cook/chaperone (Rosie O'Donnell), her lawyer and his wife (Beth Leavel) and her legal guardians (Sandy Duncan and xx), who just want everyone to 'be happy,'" describe press nots.

No, No, Nanette, which has music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, and book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, has had two major Broadway productions: the show originally opened in 1925, and then was revived and reconceived in 1971 in a production supervised by Busby Berkeley and adapted and directed by Bert Shevelove. Encores! will present the 1971 version of Nanette. The show features such classic songs as "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy."

Tickets for the May 12 Benefit range from $250 – $2,500 and are available by calling 212-763-1205.  For further information, please visit www.nycitycenter.org.