A Sterling Silver Celebration: Vineyard Theatre XXV

The Vineyard Theatre celebrates its 25th Anniversary with musical performances from past hits and the presentation of an original song by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell ([title of show]). Bowen and Bell are joined by Heidi Blickenstaff and Susan Blackwell to perform the song and also to serve as the evening’s emcees. Paula Vogel, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive (as well as The Long Christmas Ride Home) debuted at The Vineyard Theatre, is a guest of honor. The first recipient of The Paula Vogel Playwriting Award will be announced. Also to be presented is The Vineyard’s 2007 Kitty Carlisle Hart Musical Theatre Award to recipients Nathan Tysen and Chris Miller, creators of the musical The Burnt Part Boys. The evening also features a live and silent auction.

The Vineyard Theatre’s 25th Anniversary Gala is directed by Jason Moore, who received a Tony nomination for Avenue Q, the first Vineyard production to transfer to Broadway (and subsequently win three Tony Awards, including Best Musical).

Other Highlights of the Evening:

Emmy Award-winner and Tony Award-nominee S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order, Lackawanna Blues, and The Piano Lesson) performs songs from The Vineyard’s world-premiere production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, in which she starred as legendary singer Billie Holliday.

Tony Award-nominee Judy Kuhn (Chess, She Loves Me) performs songs by Laura Nyro. Ms. Kuhn starred in The Vineyard’s 2001 world-premiere production of Eli’s Comin’, for which she received an Obie Award.

Cheyenne Jackson (All Shook Up, United 93), recently seen in The Vineyard’s Lab Production of Nicky Silver’s The Agony and the Agony, performs a song from the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical Flora, the Red Menace which had an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival at The Vineyard in 1987.

The evening’s other participants include Patricia Clarkson, Julianne Moore, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, Annie Parisse, Ann Harada, Tony Roberts, Michael Berresse, Penny Fuller, Vineyard Theatre founder Barbara Zinn Kreiger and Douglas Aibel, who has held his position as Artistic Director throughout the company’s 25-year history.