Theatre Wing to Honor Channing, Jones & Tune, June 4

The American Theatre Wing will honor Carol Channing, James Earl Jones and Tommy Tune at its Annual Spring Gala on Monday, June 4, 2007.

The event will take place at Cipriani 42nd Street with a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7:30 p.m.  Proceeds from the event benefit the American Theatre Wing's continuing efforts in support of theatrical education and excellence.

Carol Channing, recipient of the 1995 Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, has been a star since 1950 when a Time magazine cover story hailed her performance as Lorelei in Gentleman Prefer Blondes. Since then, her countless honors have included a Tony Award or nomination for every Broadway show in which she has appeared, an Emmy Award and four additional nominations, an Oscar nomination, and a Golden Globe Award. She made her Broadway debut in1948 in Lend An Ear and her Broadway credits have included Wonderful Town, Four on a Garden, The Vamp and Show Girl. Her greatest Broadway triumph came in 1964 with Hello, Dolly!, for which she won a Tony Award.

James Earl Jones has won numerous awards for his theatre work, including Tony Awards® for the Broadway productions of The Great White Hope and Fences. He has a long association with the New York Shakespeare Festival, having appeared in productions of King Lear, The Cherry Orchard, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus and The Merchant of Venice, as well as with the playwright Athol Fugard, having appeared on and Off-Broadway in his plays Master Harold and the boys, A Lesson from Aloes, Boesman & Lena and The Blood Knot.  His other Broadway credits include Othello, The Iceman Cometh, Les Blancs, Of Mice and Men and, most recently, On Golden Pond.  He made his feature film debut in Dr. Strangelove and earned an Academy Award nomination for the film version of The Great White Hope.  He provided the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films and of Mufasa in Disney's The Lion King. For his extensive television work he's won two Emmy Awards, for Gabriel's Fire and Heat Wave.

Tommy Tune is the winner of nine Tony Awards, and holds the distinction as the only person in theatrical history to win Tony Awards in four different categories, as well as winning the same two Tony Awards two years in a row. The Texan has been a Broadway fixture since leaving Houston where he began tap, acrobatics and ballet lessons at age 5. Tune made his Broadway debut in the chorus of Baker Street. Other Broadway highlights include Michael Bennett's Seesaw, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, Stepping Out, Grand Hotel , The Will Rogers Follies and Tommy Tune Tonite! He also directed The Club and Cloud 9 Off-Broadway. He toured the United States and Canada in the musical Bye Bye Birdie, directed by Gene Saks. In 1991, he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in Broadway's Gershwin Theatre.

The evening's honorary chairs are Angela Bassett, Courtney B. Vance, Jerry Herman and Twiggy. The benefit chairs are CeCe Black and Chappy Morris.

Tickets for the black-tie gala range from $2,500 to $700, with tables of 10 starting at $7,000.  For more information and to order tickets, call 212-765-0606 x301.

The not-for-profit American Theatre Wing is best known as the creator of the Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, which it presents annually with the League of American Theatres and Producers.  The Wing's other activities, dedicated to recognizing excellence and supporting education in theatre, include "Downstage Center," a weekly long-form interview program on XM Satellite Radio; "Working in the Theater", now in its 27th year of telecasts on CUNY TV in New York and on other national cable outlets; "Guides to Careers in the Theatre," a video series developed for schools and libraries; a grants and scholarship program to New York City schools and not-for-profit theatre companies, which has awarded nearly $3 million since its inception; the Theatre Intern Group, a career development program for young professionals; and SpringboardNYC, a two-week college-to-career boot camp for young performers moving to NYC.  Visitors to www.americantheatrewing.org have access to an archive of "Working in the Theatre," "Downstage Center" and the Career Guides all offered as free, on-demand streaming and downloadable audio and video.   Sondra Gilman is chairman of the board of directors of the American Theatre Wing, Doug Leeds is president of the board, and Howard Sherman is executive director.

Photo of Carol Channing by Chris Kane