Johnston and Abraham To Host Atlantic Theater Co Gala!

Atlantic Theater Company's (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) 2008 Annual Spring gala, entitled "Why Can't It Be a Musical? An Evening of Unexpected Musical Adaptations," will be hosted by Academy Award® winner F. Murray Abraham and Atlantic ensemble member and Emmy Award® winner Kristen Johnston on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at the fabled Rainbow Room (30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th floor).
 
The Gala will begin at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails and music. Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m., followed by a star studded performance and live auction at 9:00 p.m.
 
Academy Award® winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) made his Atlantic debut this season in the world premiere of Academy Award® winning filmmaker Ethan Coen's comedy Almost an Evening, now playing at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street following a sold out run at Atlantic Stage 2. He also appeared on Broadway this season in Theresa Rebeck's play Mauritius.
 
Two time Emmy Award® winner and Atlantic ensemble member Kristen Johnston returned to the company this season to star in the hit world premiere production of Lucy Thurber's play Scarcity. She is best known for playing 'Sally Soloman' on the hit NBC series "3rd Rock from the Sun" for all six seasons. Johnston has also appeared at Atlantic in The Lights (Drama Desk Award® nomination), Rosemary for Remembrance and Five Very Live.
 
This year's Atlantic Gala promises to deliver an original tribute to the genre of musical adaptations while celebrating the accomplished history of the award-winning Off-Broadway theater company.
 
Atlantic is thrilled that two award-winning actors who have starred on the company's stage this season will celebrate Atlantic's present and future following 23 years of producing great theater, including the Tony Award® winning hit musical Spring Awakening and four world premiere productions this season - Peter Parnell's Trumpery, Lucy Thurber's Scarcity, Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song, and Academy Award® winning filmmaker Ethan Coen's Almost an Evening.
 
Proceeds from the Gala will benefit Atlantic's new play development programs and its growing Arts Education and Outreach programs including "Atlantic For Kids" children's productions and Atlantic's in-classroom "Students and Educators" series, serving more than 3,000 New York City public school students annually.
 
Last year's Gala saluted Atlantic ensemble member and Academy Award® winning actress Mary Steenburgen and Emmy® and Golden Globe Award® winner Ted Danson. The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton served as honorary co-chairs. Past Atlantic galas have featured such memorable moments as Patti LuPone serenading David Mamet, Woody Allen playing the clarinet and such guests as Liev Schrieber, Lynn Redgrave, Elijah Wood, and Sam Mendes.
 
Co-founded by David Mamet and William H. Macy, Atlantic Theater Company is the award-winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully by both emerging and established playwrights. Since its inception, Atlantic has produced more than one hundred plays, including the world premieres of the hit musical Spring Awakening, David Mamet's acclaimed Romance, and Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory and Writer's Block;  the American premieres of the Tony Award® winning production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh and the Tony® nominated production of his The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Mojo by Jez Butterworth and Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange; the New York premieres of Dublin Carol by Conor McPherson, and The Cider House Rules, adapted by Peter Parnell. Over the last two decades, Atlantic has garnered twelve Tony Awards®, eight Lucille Lortel Awards, twelve Obie Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, 1 Drama League Award and 1 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.
 
Atlantic Theater maintains an ensemble of actors, writers and directors that represent a who's who among the artistic world. In addition to Kristen Johnston, the ensemble includes founders David Mamet (Pulitzer Prize winner, Glengarry Glen Ross; Academy Award® nominee, Wag the Dog and The Verdict), William H. Macy (Academy Award® nominee, Fargo; Emmy Award® winner, "Door to Door"), founding members Felicity Huffman (Academy Award® nominee and Golden Globe Award winner, Transamerica; Emmy Award® winner, "Desperate Housewives"), Clark Gregg ("The New Adventures of Old Christine," In Good Company), and Mary McCann (Little Children, The Spanish Prisoner, "The Unit"), Giancarlo Esposito (Carlito's Way: The Beginning, Ali, Do the Right Thing), Chris Bauer (The Ballad of Bettie Page, "The Wire"), Mary Steenburgen (Golden Globe® and Academy Award® winner, Melvin and Howard ) and Camryn Manheim (Emmy Award® winner, "The Practice") among others.
 
BIOGRAPHIES
 
F. Murray Abraham is currently starring in Atlantic's world premiere production of Ethan Coen's comedy Almost an Evening, now playing at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street following a sold out run at Atlantic Stage 2 earlier this season. He recently appeared on Broadway in the acclaimed production Theresa Rebeck's play Mauritius. He played Shylock and Barabas in rotating rep with Theatre for a New Audience, repeating Shylock at Stratford-upon-Avon in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works.  He has been a Macy's Santa, won an Oscar®, an OBIE, a Golden Globe®,  and is preparing The Old Man and the Sea for Robert Halmi and Robert Halmi Jr.  Mr. Abraham has performed with some of the greatest orchestras in American and is the narrator for the PBS' Nature.  He is a Fox Foundation recipient and author of The Dream, published by Faber & Faber. He is also a ridiculously proud grandfather and a proud member of Actors' Equity.
 
Kristen Johnston is an Atlantic company member who returned to the company this season to star in the world premiere of Lucy Thurber's play Scarcity. She has also appeared at Atlantic in numerous productions including Overruled, As You Like It, Portrait of a Woman, Rosemary for Remembrance, Five Very Live and Atlantic's production of Howard Korder's The Lights at Lincoln Center, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination. She has appeared on the Broadway stage in The Women (Roundabout) and in Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing and The Skin of Our Teeth for the Public Theater's New York Shakespeare Festival. Off-Broadway credits include The Baltimore Waltz (Signature), Hot Keys and The Stand In (Naked Angels), Kim's Sister (New York Stage and Film), Baby Anger (Playwrights Horizons) and the Obie Award winning play Aunt Dan and Lemon (New Group).She is best known to television audiences for playing 'Sally Soloman' on the hit NBC series, "3rd Rock from the Sun," for which she won two Emmy Awards, as well as Golden Globe, Screen Actor's Guild, TV Guide and American Comedy Award nominations. She most recently co-starred opposite Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in the Warner Brother's feature film Music and Lyrics, guest starred as 'Dr. Eve Peyton' on NBC's award-winning medical drama "ER," and made her West End stage debut in Love Song directed by John Crowley.Other film roles include starring opposite Mike Myers in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, 'Wilma Flintstone' in Universal's The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas and The Debt (Cannes Film Festival Best Short Award winner).
 
ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of the play and the intent of the playwright are at the core of the creative process. Atlantic's acclaimed world premiere production of its first musical Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer, won 8 Tony Awards®, including Best Musical. In 2006, Atlantic was awarded the Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work and its lauded production of Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, directed by Wilson Milam, transferred to the Lyceum Theatre, where it was nominated for five 2006 Tony Awards® including Best Play.
 
Atlantic has produced four world premiere productions this season, Peter Parnell's Trumpery, directed by David Esbjornson and featuring Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award® winner Michael Cristofer and Tony Award® nominee Manoel Felciano; Lucy Thurber's Scarcity, directed by Jackson Gay and featuring Emmy Award® winner Kristen Johnston, Jesse Eisenberg and Michael T. Weiss; Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Chris Bauer, Jonathan Cake and Emily Mortimer and Academy Award® winning filmmaker Ethan Coen's comedy Almost and Evening, featuring Academy Award® winner F. Murray Abraham and Mark Linn-Baker.   Last season, founder David Mamet's smash hit adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, directed by David Warren and starring Michael Stuhlbarg and Fritz Weaver, was extended an unprecedented three times, the first time in Atlantic's history. The world premiere production of Atlantic's second musical 10 Million Miles, featuring music and lyrics by Grammy Award® nominated singer/songwriter Patty Griffin, a book by Keith Bunin and direction by Tony Award® winner Michael Mayer also played an extended limited engagement.
 
Since it's inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 100 plays including the Tony Award® winning production of The Beauty Queen Of Leenane, the world premieres of Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory and Writer's Block, the acclaimed world premiere of David Mamet's Romance, Jez Butterworth's Mojo, Tom Donaghy's Minutes From The Blue Route, Edwin Sanchez' Trafficking in Broken Hearts and the American premieres of Blue/Orange, Dublin Carol and The Night Heron, the New York premieres of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and The Cider House Rules, the revivals of American Buffalo, Edmond, The Hothouse and Hobson's Choice.  Atlantic maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including David Mamet (playwright and director) and William H. Macy (Academy Award® nominee for Fargo), who founded Atlantic over twenty years ago in 1985. 
 
GALA TICKET PRICES:  $2,000 (Sponsor), $1,200 (Patron), and $750. for individual tickets.
 
GALA TABLE PRICES: $20,000 (Sponsor), $12,000 (Producer), $7,500 (Angel).
 
To purchase tickets, please call 212-691-5919 extension. 1088 or e-mail ryndigoyen@atlantictheater.org.
                                                           
www.atlantictheater.org