Photo Coverage: The Players Honor Barbara Cook with Helen Hayes Award
By: Walter McBride Nov. 18, 2016
The Players, the city's most fabled private social club for actors and artists, just presented its inaugural Helen Hayes Award to Barbara Cook, the musical theatre legend who is widely considered one of the twentieth century's best interpreters of the Great American Songbook, at a gala ceremony yesterday.
Named for legendary actress Helen Hayes (1900-1993), the first female member ever admitted to The Players, the newly established award honors women who have made an indelible contribution to the American theatre.
Cook was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1927. Described by critic Alistair Macauley as "the greatest singer in the world," Cook starred in the original Broadway productions of Candide, She Loves Me, and The Music Man, for which she won a Tony Award. In recent years, she established herself as an acclaimed cabaret and concert singer and earned a 2010 Tony Award nomination for her performance in the musical Sondheim on Sondheim, directed by James Lapine.
Over the course of her sixty-year career, Cook has won Tony, Grammy, Drama Desk, and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and was cited as a Living New York Landmark. In 2011 she became a Kennedy Center Honors recipient. Earlier this summer Cook released her memoir, Then and Now, to critical accolades.
Hayes, who was known through much of the twentieth century as "the First Lady of the American Theatre," is one of only a dozen artists to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (collectively known as an EGOT). In 1988, Hayes earned the distinction of being the first woman admitted to The Player
Founded in 1888 by actor Edwin Booth with 15 other incorporators including Mark Twain, The Players is New York City's premier social club for theatre, television, film, music, and publishing professionals, patrons of the arts, and business and civic leaders. Housed in the Booth mansion, a landmark Greek Revival townhouse on Gramercy Park, The Players celebrates the rich cultural life of New York City with exclusive membership events that include live performances, readings by leading authors and playwrights, film screenings, and special dining and cocktail experiences in its famous Grill Room. Presidents of The Players have included Jose Ferrer, Lynn Redgrave and Timothy Hutton.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride
2016 Helen Hayes Award Dinner honoring Barbara Cook
The 2016 Helen Hayes Award Dinner honoring Barbara Cook
The 2016 Helen Hayes Award Dinner honoring Barbara Cook
Arthur Makar
Arthur Makar and Charles Busch
Arthur Makar and Charles Busch
Josh Kight, Arthur Makar, Martina Arroyo, Shana Farr and Shana Grossman
Shana Grossman
Shana Grossman
Josh Kight
Josh Kight, Shana Farr, Shana Grossman and Charles Busch
Josh Kight, Arthur Makar, Charles Busch, Shana Farr and Shana Grossman
Josh Kight, Arthur Makar, Charles Busch, Shana Farr and Shana Grossman
Arthur Makar
Arthur Makar
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