CLOSING THE GAP: THE MUSICALS OF LEVINSON AND WEINGARTEN to Honor Jackie Hoffman at Joe's Pub

Closing the Gap - A Benefit Concert - A special One Night Only Concert featuring the songs of Dramatist Guild Fellows Dana Levinson and Stacey Weingarten. Inspired by an Ira Glass quote, musical theater writing team Levinson and Weingarten air their dirty laundry and reveal the sometimes painful but often hilarious process of closing the gap between artistic taste and ability. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Levels Teen Center at the Great Neck Library, a 501(c)(3) organization, a vital community teen center and arts program, to aid in seeing them through the Great Neck Library renovation. The evening will celebrate Jackie Hoffman, a former Levels alum, for all her artistic accomplishments. The concert will take place on Monday, February 16 at 7PM (doors open at 6PM) at Joe's Pub at the Public (425 Lafayette Street). Tickets are $20.00-75.00 and can be purchased online (www.joespub.com), by calling 212.967.7555 or in-person at the Public Theater Box Office (open at 2PM daily).

Closing the Gap will feature the best and brightest of Broadway and Off Broadway today including Michael Armstrong Barr (Jump Man, Film: Growing Up and Other Lies), Mick Bleyer (National Tour: The Scarlet Pimpernel, Award winning vocal group Marquee Five), Drew Gasparini (composer/lyricist "Smash," NYMF's Best of Fest winner Crazy, Above My Pay Grade, Circles), Britton Smith (Broadway's After Midnight, Fortress of Solitude), Brian Charles Rooney (BEDBUGS!!!, Broadway's Three Penny Opera), Farah Siraj (Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center), Kate Steinberg (Rescue Rue, Broken Bride:A Rock Opera). The evening is directed by Drama League Fellow Samantha Saltzman, Music Direction by Andrew Wheeler and Executive Produced by Suellen Vance.

LEVELS is a cultural arts center featuring workshops in theatre, dance, art, music, video, puppetry, and writing, among other offerings. A place created BY and FOR teenagers, the teens themselves are given the opportunity to plan Levels' programming and activities, continually shaping the center into a vital and relevant arts space serving the needs and interests of kids today. Free to all, the supervised teen center is open to seventh grade through college age students and is located in the Main Building of the Great Neck Library.

Dana Levinson (Composer, Arranger & Orchestrator) Credits Include: Music and Lyrics: 5th Republic (NYMF 2011 under the title Les Enfants de Paris), Jarreau's (NYMF Developmental Reading 2012 under the title MADAME), Báthory. Arranging and Orchestration: Gypsy of the Year: Avenue Q Presentation (Minskoff Theatre, Broadway), Joanna Gleason (Provincetown Art House), Well Strung(various), LUDO's Broken Bride (various), upcoming: San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Film Scoring: The Waystation in the Stars (dir. Brandon Morrissey), Monica's Mixing Bowl (dir. Jesse Averna, prod. Stacey Weingarten and Monica Willey). Dana is a graduate of The New School. She also studies Oud and Arab music with the conductor of the New York Arabic Orchestra, Bassam Saba.

Stacey Weingarten is a book writer, puppeteer, director, and producer (EP of Chinese Mother Jewish Daughter). Most recently, her family musical Rescue Rue was presented at NYMF 2014. Other favorite projects include: 5th Republic (NYMF '11 under the title Les Enfants de Paris), Jarreau's (NYMF '12 under the title MADAME), 20/42, LUDO's Broken Bride (ANT Fest '13; The Cutting Room) and family series Monica's Mixing Bowl. Stacey has attended the O'Neill Puppetry Conference twice, in 2008 creating a piece called Oscar the Naked Cockatoo which was selected for presentation at the final showcase performances. She originated the role of Bubbles in John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean Off-Broadway, and is currently the puppet Wrangler/Wardrobe Head for Avenue Q Off-Broadway and teaches puppetry at Pace University.

Jackie Hoffman is a New York based actress, singer, comedian, self-loathing Jew, who was last seen in the recurring role of David's mother on NBC's The New Normal. She has been in the original Broadway casts ofThe Addams Family, Xanadu, and Hairspray, for which she won the Theatre World Award for most outstanding Broadway debut. Other Off-Broadway plays include A Chanukah Charol, The Tribeca Theatre Festival, The Gingerbread House, The Book of Liz, for which Jackie won the Obie award for best actress, Straightjacket, Incident at Cobbler's Knob (Lincoln Center Theatre Festival) and One Woman Shoe. Regional Theatre: Chicago at the MUNY, The Sisters Rosensweig at the Globe Theatre. Jackie starred in six revues at The Second City theatre in Chicago, where she won the Jeff Award for Best Actress. Jackie's solo shows at Joe's Pub, all directed by Michael Schiralli, have all received tremendous critical acclaim. Her show "The Kvetching Continues" won Time Out New York's outstanding achievement award and was the longest running show in Joe's Pub's history. Other solo shows: "Jackie Five-Oh!," "Chanukah at Joe's Pub" (Bistro Award), "Scraping the Bottom," and "Jackie with a Z." Jackie won a Mac Award in 2009 for Best Female Stand Up. She can be seen in the films Birdman, The Sitter, The Extra Man, How to Seduce Difficult Women, A Dirty Shame, Garden State, Legally Blonde II, Kissing Jessica Stein, and Mo' Money. Her television appearances have included "The New Normal," "Raising Hope," "Melissa and Joey," "On We Go," "30 Rock," "Starved," "Hope and Faith," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Strangers with Candy," "TV Funhouse," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Soulman," "Cosby," as well as the voices for the cartoons "High School USA," "Family Guy," "Dilbert," "PB & J Otter," and the film Robots.

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