One for Albee!

Tyne Daly, Bill Irwin, Judith Ivey, Eartha Kitt, Marian Seldes, Stiller & Meara, and a host of stars help the Vineyard Theatre salute Edward Albee.

By Benjamin Gabbe ,Brian Scott Lipton • Feb 7, 2008 • New York

On Monday night, the Vineyard Theatre held its annual gala at the swanky Rainbow Room. The evening honored three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, who will turn 80 next month.

The theater's artistic director, Douglas Aibel, welcomed the well-dressed crowd to the event.

The Albee tribute was hosted by Bill Irwin, who won the Tony Award for playing George in the recent revival of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Tony winner Tyne Daly, now starring in the playwright's new work, Me, Myself, and I at the McCarter Theatre.

Proving that 80 is nothing to fear, Eartha Kitt wowed the crowd with two of her signature songs, "C'est Si Bon" and "Here's to Life."

Playwright Will Eno regaled the audience with stories about taking care of Albee's cat, Snow.

For his pithy remarks, playwright John Guare got some help from the Internet.

Irwin had the room in stitches with a comic pantomime about "the seven ages of Man."

Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were another comic highlight of the event.

Albee veterans Jeffrey Carlson, Brian Murray, and Judith Ivey participated in a Jeopardy skit where the only category was, not surprisingly, Edward Albee.

Marian Seldes, who won a Tony for the original Broadway production of Albee's A Delicate Balance, introduced the almost-birthday boy.

The event's other guests included David Burtka (right), who co-starred with Seldes and Murray in The Play About the Baby, and Neil Patrick Harris.

Jeff Whitty, author of the Tony-winning Avenue Q, which originated at the Vineyard, caught up with executive director Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell.

Vineyard Board members Kathleen Chalfant, Joe Morton, and Judy Kuhn were on hand for the celebration.

Here's the great Penny Fuller, who starred in the Vineyard's Beautiful Child, with longtime friend Tony Roberts, who hosted the Jeopardy skit.

Finally, the evening reunited the original Off-Broadway cast of Albee's Three Tall Women: Seldes, Myra Carter, and Jordan Baker, pictured here with handsome hubby Kevin Kilner.