Neuwirth, Naughton, Fitzgerald Headline NY City Center Gala 4/4

New York City Center will honor Walter Bobbie, Kathleen Marshall and Jack Viertel in a benefit celebration hosted by Christopher Fitzgerald on Monday, April 4 at The Plaza Hotel. Highlights from City Center's acclaimed Encores! series will be recreated by a star-studded cast that will include Jason Danieley, Christopher Fitzgerald, Marin Mazzie, James Naughton, Bebe Neuwirth and Emily Skinner, accompanied by members of The Encores! Orchestra under the musical direction of Rob Berman. The benefit will help fund New York City Center's artistic and education programs.

Walter Bobbie, Kathleen Marshall and Jack Viertel, past and present artistic directors of City Center's Tony Award-winning Encores! series, have helped make Encores! the acclaimed and enduring success it is today. Christopher Fitzgerald, James Naughton, Bebe Neuwirth, Marin Mazzie and Emily Skinner have all starred in past Encores! productions.

The evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 6:30pm, followed by dinner and performances in The Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel (58th Street at 5th Avenue). Co-chairs are Sherry and Stephen Jacobs, Monica and Raymond A. Lamontagne, Patricia W. and Jesse Robert Lovejoy and Stephanie and Fred Shuman.

Walter Bobbie was Artistic Director of Encores! from 1995-1996. He is a Tony Award-winning director and actor. Mr. Bobbie directed Fiorello!, the premiere production of City Center's Encores! series, as well as the Encores!, Broadway and international productions of Chicago, winning Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Other Broadway directing credits include High Fidelity, Sweet Charity, On The Twentieth Century and A Grand Night for Singing, for which he also co-authored the book. He has also directed the Encores! productions of No, No, Nanette; Tenderloin; and Golden Boy; and as an actor he starred in Bye Bye Birdie and Face the Music.

Kathleen Marshall was Artistic Director of Encores! from 1997-2000. She directed and choreographed the Encores! productions of Bells Are Ringing, Applause, Carnival, Hair and Babes In Arms, among others. She is directing the upcoming Broadway production of Anything Goes, and has directed The Pajama Game; Wonderful Town; Grease; Boeing, Boeing; Little Shop of Horrors; Follies; Seussical; Kiss Me, Kate; Ring Round the Moon; 1776 and Swinging on a Star. For ABC/Disney, she directed and choreographed "Once Upon a Mattress" and choreographed "The Music Man" (Emmy nomination). She has received two Tony awards, two Drama Desk awards and two Outer Critics Circle awards.

Jack Viertel has been Artistic Director of Encores! since 2001, during which time he has been responsible for bringing over 30 productions of forgotten musical theater gems back to the stage for today's audiences.
He is Senior Vice President of Jujamcyn Theaters. He is the former dramaturg of the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and was the drama critic of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He conceived of and co-produced Smokey Joe's Cafe, dramaturged Hairspray and has been associated with six August Wilson plays, Angels in America and many others.

New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan's first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series, now in its 18th season, has been hailed as "one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York." Dance has been integral to the theater's mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival and a partnership with London's Sadler's Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center's identity. City Center is dedicated to providing educational opportunities to New York City students and teachers with programs such as Encores! In Schools and the Young People's Dance Series. Special workshops cater to families, seniors and other groups, while events such as the Fall for Dance DanceTalk series offer learning opportunities to the general public.

Benefit tickets range from $1,500 to $2,500. Tables for ten guests are available for $50,000, $25,000 and $15,000. For additional information and reservations, call 212.763.1205 or visit www.NYCityCenter.org.

Photo Credit: BWW-Staff