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GALA / SPECIAL EVENTS
Legendary composer Stephen Sondheim turned 80 on Monday, March 22, 2010…and he celebrated the occasion with Roundabout at our 2010 Spring Gala: Sondheim 80.
From his first Broadway shows such as West Side Story and Gypsy, to his genre-defying work such as Company, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods, to his complex later work like Passion and Road Show, Sondheim has redefined the possibilities of musical theatre. At our Spring Gala, artists from across the spectrum of his career gathered to pay tribute to this musical giant at birthday dinner with special performances by some of Broadway's greatest talent. Roundabout has a long relationship with Stephen Sondheim having produced five Tony Award® nominated Sondheim revivals including Company (1995), Follies (2001), Tony Award® winning Assassins (2004), Pacific Overtures (2004) and Sunday in the Park with George (2008), a concert reading of A Little Night Music (2009) starring Natasha Richardson, Victor Garber and Vanessa Redgrave at Studio 54, and the our current production of Sondheim on Sondheim (2010). In 2005, Roundabout honored Sondheim with the Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre for the indelible impact his life's work has made on the theatre world.
Sondheim 80 began at Studio 54 with an early preview of Roundabout's award-winning retrospective Sondheim on Sondheim, featuring brilliant performances by Barbara Cook, Tom Wopat and Vanessa Williams. At the show's curtain call, Mr. Sondheim was brought onto the stage and was presented by two of his longtime collaborators - James Lapine and John Weidman - with a truly surprising birthday gift: in fall 2010, Henry Miller's Theatre would be renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre! There in the audience to help celebrate this occasion were many friends and colleagues including: Lauren Bacall, Christine Baranski, Sam Buntrock, Michael Cerveris, Martin Charnin, Scott Ellis, Victor Garber, Alexander Gemignani, Joanna Gleason, Judith Ivey, Jane Krakowski, LaChanze, Angela Lansbury, Richard Maltby, Jr., Kathleen Marshall, John McMartin, Amon Miyamoto, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy, Mike Nichols, Lonny Price, Lynn Redgrave, Frank Rich, Mary Rodgers Guettel, Diane Sawyer, Eric Schaeffer, David Shire, Jonathan Tunick and Chip Zien.
Over 750 friends of Roundabout then moved to the New York Sheraton where dinner and a special birthday tribute awaited. Sondheim's influence has been immense on the current generation of writers, so we asked several of them to compose a song just for the occasion. Directed by Paul Gemignani, this special tribute featured the music and performances of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal), Michael John LaChiusa (The Wild Party), Andrew Lippa (The Addams Family), Robert Lopez (Avenue Q) and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights), Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, or Change) and David Lindsay-Abaire (Shrek). Along with special performances by Honorary Chair Bernadette Peters, Kelli O'Hara and Rita Moreno, it was a truly magical evening and a fitting celebration
Over $1.5 million was raised in this one night, all of which will go directly to Roundabout Theatre Company's Musical Theatre Fund, allowing works such as these to be revived by a new generation of artists for a new generation of audiences. Gala chairs Michael T. Cohen, Martin and Perry Granoff and Tom and Diane Tuft led this astonishing fundraising effort, which will allow musical theatre artists at all points in their career to find a creative home at Roundabout.
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