Karen Akers, Karen Ziemba and More Lead SOME ENCHANTED EVENINGS Benefit for The Ziegfeld Society Tonight

The Ziegfeld Society of New York City launches its Eighth Season tonight, September 17, 2016 with Some Enchanted Evenings: The Glittering Life and Times of Mary Martin, written and hosted by David Kaufman, based on his new bestselling biography of the same name.

The event will take place at Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College (68th Street between Park and Lexington Avenue), at 3:00pm.

This concert will be hosted by author David Kaufman and adapted from his new best-selling autobiography of the same name. Mr. Kaufman is the author of the bestselling Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door and the award-winning Ridiculous! The Theatrical Life and Times of Charles Ludlam. He is also a longtime theater critic and contributor to The New York Times, The Nation, and Vanity Fair.

Some Enchanted Evenings will star Tony Award nominee Karen Akers (Nine, Grand Hotel), Erin Cronican (Getting Out), Marcy DeGonge Manfredi (Phantom of the Opera, Cats). Chelsie Nectow (Grand Hotel: The 25th Anniversary Reunion Concert), Candice Oden (Getting Out), Meg-Tolin Piper (The Sound of Music, Grand Hotel, My Fair Lady) who starred in Mary Martin's iconic role opposite Richard Chamberlain in the 1999 national tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, Virginia Wing (Chu-Chem), and Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba (Contact, Bullets Over Broadway, Curtains) who starred in the role originally created by Mary Martin in the acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt's I Do, I Do,

The production will be direction by Tony Award nominee Walter Willison (Grand Hotel, Pippin, Two By Two), director of the critically acclaimed Grand Hotel: The 25th Anniversary Reunion Concert starring Liliane Montevecchi, Karen Akers, Meg Tolin-Piper and members of the original Broadway Cast, and A Celebration of The Academy Awards which starred Barbara Dana, Marcy DeGonge Manfredi and John Shuck at The 35th Annual William Inge Festival in April. Musical Direction is by Ziegfeld Society Executive Producer and founder Mark York, Jim Dale's accompanist and on stage sidekick in the Roundabout's Just Jim Dale Off-Broadway and in London, and musical coordinator for songwriter Jerry Herman.

The concert will feature songs from Martin's classic Golden Age musicals including South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, Annie Get Your Gun, Leave It To Me, Lute Song, and One Touch of Venus, with music and lyrics by Broadway greats Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Kurt Weil, Irving Berlin, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Moose Charlap and Carolyn Leigh, and others.

Mary Martin received four Tony Awards and created the icon roles of Nellie Forbush in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pulitzer Prize winning South Pacific, Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, and will forever be remembered to millions of television viewers as Peter Pan in the three landmark live broadcasts of the classic Comden & Green, Leigh & Charlap musical, directed by Jerome Robbins.

The Ziegfeld Society's 2016-2017 season continues on October 29th with Call My Publicist: A Theatrical Life, written and performed by Josh Ellis and directed by Gretchen Cryer; Cheryl Ann Allen in Sophie Tucker in Person, directed by Ian Finkel, on November 12TH; Call On Dolly: A Brief History of Dolly Gallagher Levi on Stage and Screen, hosted by Richard Skipper, on February 25th; Steve Ross in his new show Steve Ross: On Screen on March 25th; Thou Swell, Thou Witty!: The Songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, written and hosted by Aaron Gandy on April 29th; and a June production still to be announced. The Ziegfeld Society will present as its first annual fundraiser an original musical, Ziegfeld Follies of the Air: The 1934 Live from Broadway Broadcast Revue, with musical direction and arrangements by Mark York, written and directed by Walter Willison, featuring an all-star cast at The Cutting Room on December 18TH.

All proceeds benefit The Ziegfeld Society of New York City, a not-for-profit organization that aspires to enlighten, entertain and educate current and future generations of theatergoers and young artists about the legendary performers, songwriters and creators of our vast musical theater heritage. Monthly performances feature Broadway stalwarts performing alongside young up-and-coming artists as well as presentations by authors and screenings of lost film and television musicals.

Tickets are $23.00 for general admission, $15.00 for seniors, and $10.00 for students and can be purchase on line at theziegfeldsociety.com or by calling 917-371-5509. All contributions are tax deductible. For more information visit theziegfeldsociety.com.

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