Shoshana Bean, Lilli Cooper, Jared Grimes & Christine Pedi Join Lineup for 30th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala

Shoshana Bean (Hairspray, Mr. Saturday Night), Lilli Cooper (Tootsie, POTUS), Jared Grimes (Funny Girl), and Christine Pedi (Forbidden Broadway, NEWSical the Musical) have joined the roster of performers for a concert celebration at the 30th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala, which will honor musical theater legend Leslie Uggams (Hallelujah, Baby!, Thoroughly Modern Millie) with the 2022 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater, which will be presented by Dionne Warwick. Ted Chapin will be honored with The York Theatre Company Founders' Award, presented by his daughters Anika and Zoë Chapin, at the 30th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala on Monday evening, November 14, 2022 at The Edison Rooftop (223 West 46th Street).

The 30th Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala concert celebration will be hosted by The York's Associate Artistic Director Gerry McIntyre (Once on This Island) and will feature live entertainment with special guest appearances by the aforementioned Ms. Bean, Ms. Cooper, Mr. Grimes, and Ms. Pedi, Klea Blackhurst, Gregg Edelman, Michael James Leslie, Ron Raines, Stephanie Umoh, Jeffrey Wright, Broadway Inspirational Voices, and Dionne Warwick, with video appearances by La Chanze, André De Shields, and Lee Roy Reams. (Cast subject to change.)

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 and Music Director Christie Chiles Twillie will lead an all-female band.

The evening will also include a Silent Auction with an exciting and exclusive array of bidding items including tickets to a New York Jets game, tickets to Broadway's Six (and dinner at BOND 45) and Sleep No More, an evening at 54 Below, a Salvatore Ferragamo/Abrasivato Rosso designer bag, gift certificates for a 2023 Galápagos Islands Cruise on the Celebrity Flora, and much more! NOTE: You can place a bid if you will not be attending the event; however, in-person attendees will have the chance to make any final bids. For information on advance bidding and reservations, please visit yorktheatre.org/support/oscar-hammerstein.

"Hallelujah, baby! We're honoring show business luminary Leslie Uggams for her trailblazing contributions to musical theater, television, and movies," said James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director. "We're also so proud to honor our longtime friend Ted Chapin, former president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. What a night this is going to be!"

The 2022 Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala Committee include Riki Kane Larimer (Co-Chair), Joan Ross Sorkin (Co-Chair), Laurence Holzman, Jim Kierstead, W. David McCoy, James Morgan, Charlotte Rosenblatt, Stuart Wilk and Claudia Zahn. The 2022 Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala Producers include Catherine Adler, Margot Astrachan, Ted Chapin, Timothy Collins, Ray DeMattis, Jamie deRoy, Mercedes Ellington, Deborah Friedman & Bob Breuer, The Marta Heflin Foundation, Willette and Manny Klausner, WMK Productions, Riki Kane Larimer, W. David McCoy, Y.H. Mirzoeff & Sons Foundation, Inc., Joan T. Mischo, Francine, Pascal, Ted Snowdon & Duffy Violante, Dr. Maria Sokolina, Joan Ross Sorkin, The Michael Stewart Foundation, Vera & Jeffrey Wurst, and Claudia Zahn.

The Oscar Hammerstein Award is named in honor of the legendary lyricist and librettist who helped shape American musical theatre 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 theatre 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, 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, Alan Menken, 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 Loti 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 and an audiobook narrated by Jonathan Groff have just been released. 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.

Christie Chiles Twillie

(Music Director) Regional credits include Five Guys Named Moe, Newsies, The Gospel at Colonus, Raisin (Skylight), Hair (Asolo Rep), Dreamgirls (Paramount Aurora), Minnie's Boys (Porchlight), and the upcoming production of The Wiz (Fulton). Original scores for A Raisin in the Sun (Invictus), America 2.0 (Definition), and The Niceties (Forward). Sound Design for We Are Continuous and VietGone (GEVA), The Way She Spoke (Milwaukee Chamber), and Fireflies (Northlight). Film score credits include The Clearing and Alone. Awards: 2019 Footlights Best Musical Direction Award (Five Guys Named Moe), a Rachel Rockwell Fierce Women Behind the Table Award, and a BTAA nomination for Best Music Direction/Original Score.

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.