Ann Harada, Patti LuPone, Paolo Montalban, Richard Thomas Set for Shinsai Benefit
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, Emmy Award winner Richard Thomas, Mary Beth Hurt, Jay O. Sanders, Henry Stram, Michi Barral, Cindy Cheung, Joel de la Fuente, Angel Desai, Ann Harada, Jennifer Ikeda, Paul Juhn, Peter Kim, Ken Leung, Li Jun Li, Jennifer Lim, Angela Lin, Paolo Montalban, Olivia Oguma, Jon Norman Schneider, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Jade Wu, Jonny Wo, James Yaegashi, and Stacey Yen will participate in the benefit, Shinsai: Theater For Japan, to be presented at The Great Hall at Cooper Union on Sunday, March 11 at 3pm and 8pm. Bartlett Sher will direct.
LuPone and Stram will only appear at the 8pm performance; Hurt and Sanders will only appear at the 3pm show. All other performers will appear at both shows.
For the production, librettist John Weidman and composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim will be revising a segment from their 1976 musical Pacific Overtures.
In addition, there will also be plays and/or musical numbers by American and Japanese writers and composers, including Edward Albee, Richard Greenberg, Doug Wright, Suzan-Lori Parks, Naomi Izuka, Shoki Kokami, Oriza Hirata, John Guare, Kumiko Shinohara, John Kander, Fred Ebb & Joseph Stein, Tony Kushner & Jeanine Tesori, Nen Ishihara, Toshiki Okada, Toshiro Suzue, and Yoji Sakate.
The benefit unites several of New York City’s leading theater companies as co-presenters, including Atlantic Theater Company, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, The Play Company, Playwrights Horizons, and The Public Theater.
All proceeds from the performances will be sent from the Dramatists Guild Fund to the Japan Playwrights Association, who will in turn distribute the monies to those members of Japan’s theatrical community who were stricken by the earthquake.
In addition to the New York presentation, over 60 theaters around the country will present their own Shinsai benefits on March 11.
For tickets to the New York event, call 212- 967-7555 or visit www.publictheater.org.
