WAR PAINT's Christine Ebersole and Patti LuPone to Headline Playwrights Horizons' 2017 Gala

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons will hold its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, May 8 at the event space 583 Park Avenue. Titled A CELEBRATION OF SONG, the evening will honor three of the company's exceptional alumni writers: Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven at Playwrights), Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven at Playwrights) and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife and Grey Gardens at Playwrights). The Grey Gardens writing team is returning to Broadway this spring with their new musical, War Paint, which will begin previews March 7 at The Nederlander Theatre.

A CELEBRATION OF SONG will feature performances by three of the team's leading ladies: two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole, two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone and Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara. The three will perform selections from the musicals GREY GARDENS (book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie), FAR FROM HEAVEN (book by Richard Greenberg, music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie,) and War Paint (book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie).

The evening will also pay special recognition to book writer Richard Greenberg (Far From Heaven, The Maderati at Playwrights) and director Michael Greif (Grey Gardens, Far From Heaven, Spatter Pattern at Playwrights, the upcoming War Paint).

Serving as Gala Co-Chairs are Dana M. Seshens, War Paint producer David Stone and Aleksandra Szczepanowska.

Playwrights Horizons is an award-winning, not-for-profit theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers, and lyricists and to the production of their new plays and musicals. In its 46-year history, Playwrights has been distinguished by its steadfast and unyielding dedication to the American writer; a history of acclaimed productions that have earned six Pulitzer Prizes; the recognition of the national theater community as a leader in the field of new play development and production; a commitment to new work and new voices which has resulted in the launching of hundreds of playwriting careers; and the production of more than 350 plays and musicals, with hundreds more commissioned and developed at the theater.

Cocktails and a Silent Auction will begin at 6PM, followed at 7:30PM by dinner and the evening's entertainment.

Individual tickets for the Gala start at $1,000 and tables start at $10,000. For more information regarding tickets and sponsorship opportunities, visit www.phnyc.org/gala or call (929) 299-4368.

The Spring Gala is the organization's largest fundraising event of the year, with donations earmarked to support six annual productions, the development of new plays and musicals, ticket subsidies and programs for students and early-career professionals. The programs cultivate the next generation of artists, arts managers and theatergoers.

ABOUT THE HONOREES:

Scott Frankel was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his work on Grey Gardens, which had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons before moving to Broadway. Since then, the show has been performed regularly across the country, as well as internationally. He has also written the music for Far From Heaven (Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival), Finding Neverland (UK premiere, 2012), Happiness (Lincoln Center Theater), Doll (Ravinia Festival, Richard Rodgers Award) and Meet Mister Future (winner, Global Search for New Musicals), all with lyricist Michael Korie. Frankel is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award and the Frederick Loewe Award. He was the 2011-2012 Frances & William Schuman Fellow at The MacDowell Colony and is a graduate of Yale University.

Michael Korie was nominated for a Tony and received an Outer Critics Circle Award for his lyrics to Grey Gardens, composer Scott Frankel, book by Doug Wright, directed by Michael Greif, produced at Playwrights Horizons, and subsequently on Broadway, nationally and abroad. He wrote the lyrics to Far From Heaven with composer Frankel and playwright Richard Greenberg, produced at Williamstown Festival, Playwrights Horizons, and at Chicago's Porchlight Theater later this season. Also with Frankel, lyrics to Happiness at Lincoln Center Theater, Meet Mister Future at Cardiff Festival and Doll presented at Ravinia. He co-wrote lyrics with Amy Powers to Doctor Zhivago produced internationally and on Broadway, and is currently collaborating on a new show with Tom Kitt and Donald Margulies for Disney Theatricals. For opera, Korie adapTed Steinbeck's novel for the libretto to The Grapes of Wrath, composer Ricky Ian Gordon, and created original librettos to operas with composer StewArt Wallace including Harvey Milk, Hopper's Wife, Where's Dick? and Kabbalah. Their operas have been produced at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, New York City Opera, BAM Next Wave Festival, Carnegie Hall and Disney Los Angeles Symphony Hall. Korie's lyrics have received the Edward Kleban Prize, Jonathan Larson Award and the ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award. His songs with composer Scott Frankel were featured at The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage Broadway Today. He serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild and moderates the Dramatist Guild Musical Theater Fellows Program. www.MichaelKorie.com

Doug Wright earned the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play I Am My Own Wife. Other stage works include Grey Gardens (Tony nomination), The Little Mermaid and Hands on a Hardbody. Film: Quills, based on his Obie-winning play, nominated for three Academy Awards. Television: Tony Bennett: An American Classic, directed by Rob Marshall. Honors: Benjamin Dank Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters; Tolerance Prize, Kulturforum Europa; Paul Selvin Award, Writers Guild of America. Professional affiliations: President of the Dramatists Guild; member, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, board of the New York Theatre Workshop. Wright is married to singer/songwriter David Clement.

Playwrights Horizons is dedicated to cultivating the most important American Playwrights, composers and lyricists, as well as developing and producing their bold new plays and musicals. Under Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, Playwrights builds upon its diverse and renowned body of work, counting 400 writers among its artistic roster. In addition to its onstage work each season, Playwrights' singular commitment to nurturing American theater artists guides all of the institution's multifaceted initiatives: our acclaimed New Works Lab, a robust commissioning program, an innovative curriculum at its Theater School and more. Playwrights has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including six Pulitzer Prizes, 13 Tony Awards and 39 Obie Awards. Prior artistic directors include André Bishop, Don Scardino and Robert Moss, who founded Playwrights Horizons in 1971 and oversaw its first decade, cementing the mission that continues to guide the institution today.

Notable productions include six Pulitzer Prize winners - Annie Baker's The Flick (2013 Obie Award, 2013 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park (2012 Tony Award, Best Play), Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George - as well as Ms. Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation (three 2010 Obie Awards including Best New American Play); Lisa D'Amour's Detroit (2013 Obie Award, Best New American Play); Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale (2013 Lortel Award, Best Play); Kirsten Greenidge's Milk Like Sugar (2012 Obie Award); Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime (2015 Pulitzer finalist); Lucas Hnath's The Christians (2016 Obie Award, 2016 Outer Critics Circle Award, 2015 Kesselring Prize); Robert O'Hara's Bootycandy (two 2015 Obie Awards); Adam Bock's A Life and A Small Fire; Taylor Mac's Hir; Danai Gurira's Familiar; Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, a post-electric play; Sarah Ruhl's Stage Kiss and Dead Man's Cell Phone; Gina Gionfriddo's Rapture, Blister, Burn; Dan LeFranc's The Big Meal; Amy Herzog's The Great God Pan and After the Revolution; Bathsheba Doran's Kin; Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I; Melissa James Gibson's This (2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist); Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards); Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play); Adam Rapp's Kindness; Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting); Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero; David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award); Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award); Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead (2000 Tony Award, Best Book); Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins; William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland; Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You; Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere; Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island; Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire; Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room; A.R. Gurney's Later Life; Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins; and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.

The Playwrights Horizons 2016/2017 Season continues with THE LIGHT YEARS, the world premiere of a new play written by Drama Desk Award winner Hannah Bos and Obie Award winner Paul Thureen, directed and developed by Obie Award winner Oliver Butler, made by The Debate Society (previews begin February 17); THE PROFANE, the world premiere of a new Horton Foote Prize-winning play by Zayd Dohrn, directed by Kip Fagan (previews begin March 17) and concludes with BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE, the co-world premiere of a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Obie Award winner Kirsten Childs, directed by two-time Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara and commissioned by Playwrights Horizons through the Musicals in Partnership Initiative with funds provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (previews begin May 19).