Joseph Benincasa News

If you are a Friar you receive an "Opening Act" email that introduces you to a new member. Sadly, you also get a "Final Curtain" email when a member leaves the stage. In true theater tradition an "After Party" was held for one of the clubs esteemed members in the Frank Sinatra Dining Room last night. It was organized by Actors Fund President and CEO Joseph Benincasa to remember Irv Welzer, a beloved member of the club. With song and story a few of Irv's fellow Friars reminisced. Mayor David Dinkins, Danny Aiello, Bernadette Peters, Dominic Chianese, Mark Simone, Robert Creighton,Carol Skarimbas,Will & Anthony Nunziata, and Stewie Stone all participated in this party, which celebrated a much loved member of the theatre community.

A bevy of Broadway's best, including Kristin Chenoweth, Gavin Creel, Andrea Martin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Helen Mirren, Matthew Morrison and more than 200 of Broadway and Off-Broadway's most talented performers, will come together this week for the 29th Annual Easter Bonnet Competition.

A bevy of Broadway's best, including Kristin Chenoweth, Gavin Creel, Andrea Martin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Helen Mirren, Matthew Morrison and more than 200 of Broadway and Off-Broadway's most talented performers, will come together next week for the 29th Annual Easter Bonnet Competition.

The world's largest solo theatre festival concluded its season with an awards ceremony held on Sunday, November 23, 2014 at Theatre Row in New York City. It was the closing night for a ten-week season of solo theatre and the fifth anniversary of the festival, a resident company at Theatre Row.

Last night at the JW Marriot Essex House, Inside Broadway held it's annual Broadway Beacon Awards benefit. This year the honorees included Neil Mazzella, the Chairman of Hudson Scenic Studio, Stephen Batta, General Manager of the JW Marriott Essex House, Tony Award nominated actress of A Raisin In The Sun, Anika Noni Rose, Tony Award nominated actor Andy Karl from ROCKY and the Tony Award show All The Way.

Whether you've been living under a rock for the past week or you're just in the mood for a recap, BroadwayWorld's 'this week in pictures' is here to satisfy your end-of-the-week fix! Take a look below to catch up on the latest happenings from the Great White Way to The West End (and everywhere in between) with coverage of press events, rehearsals, opening nights and more. Highlights this week include the opening night of HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME, rehearsal for Jane Lynch's debut solo concert at 54 Below, the CD release of HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL, and more!

Slyvia Steiner had her caricature added to the the celebrities on the walls of the legendary Sardi's restaurant yesterday. Joseph Benincasa presidet/CEO of the Actors Fund and Max Klimavicius managing partner of Sardi's honored Sylvia as family and friends toasted her. Slyvia and her husband David are well known in the theater community and as Joe Benincasa pointed out, 'To know Slyvia is to love her'.

The Theatre Museum awarded its 2014 Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence at the Players Club, on Tuesday May 27, 2014. The mission of The Theatre Museum is to preserve, protect, and perpetuate the legacy of the theatre. It is the first and only chartered non profit museum dedicated to the history of Theatre. Since 1995 The Awards for Excellence have recognized individuals and organizations for their contribution to theater arts, education, theater history and preservation.

Beloved Broadway, television and film star and multi-award winning performer Brian Stokes Mitchell will present a special event at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre at 8 p.m. on Sunday, January 5, an intimate 90-minute concert - entitled Brian Stokes Mitchell: Simply Broadway - to showcase his newest album for the benefit of the Theatre and The Actors Fund.

The fourth annual United Solo Theatre Festival concluded its run on November 24, 2013 at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York City. An awards ceremony was held that night, following the eight-week-long lineup of the world's largest solo theatre festival, which offered more than 120 productions this season.

Continuing August 29 at 7PM, August 30 & 31 at 8PM & August 30 at 11PM at 54 Below is Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway in SIBLING RIVERLRY. The show is a loosely-based musical autobiography outlining their lives from their childhood in Chicago, to their move to New York City, to the ever-continuing adventures of their luminous careers.

Primary Stages last night held their annual Gala on Wednesday at The Edison Ballroom (240 W. 47th Street). The event, which honored Tony Award winner Tyne Daly (Master Class, Rabbit Hole, Gypsy), and producers and Primary Stages Board members Jamie deRoy and Ted Snowdon, featured performances by Tony Award nominee Tom Wopat (Sondheim on Sondheim, A Catered Affair), actor/director/producer Tamara Tunie ("Law & Order: SVU," "As The World Turns"), Lewis Cleale (The Book of Mormon, Spamalot, Call Me Madam), and Garrett Sorenson (Master Class). BroadwayWorld was there for the event and we bring you coverage from inside the event below!

The Writers Guild of America, West announced today that it is contributing $977,095 to The Actors Fund.

The Writers Guild of America, West announced today that it is contributing $977,095 to The Actors Fund. The monies are specifically earmarked for emergency financial assistance needed by entertainment professionals for basic living expenses such as rent or medical bills. The Fund provides support for everyone in entertainment - writers, designers, sound technicians, dancers, directors, film editors, stagehands, electricians, and actors - with a broad spectrum of programs designed to help with the serious economic, health or employment challenges they face.

Since 1976, young artists have flocked to Stagedoor Manor to pursue their dreams of performing. And on Monday, April 30, 2012, some of the Manor's best and brightest will pay tribute to their alma mater as it receives the prestigious Theatre Arts Education Award at the 2012 Theatre Museum Awards Gala Celebration. See photos of this year's alumni participants below!

At The Acting Company's Masquerade Gala on November 14 at Capitale, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Joseph Benincasa, Chairman and President respectively of The Actors Fund, will accept the Joan Warburg Humanitarian Award honoring the Fund's extraordinary legacy of providing health and human services to the entertainment community since 1882. James Bundy, Dean of Yale School of Drama and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, will receive the John Houseman Award recognizing his profound commitment to the development of classical actors and a national audience for the theater. David Hyde Pierce and Charles S. Dutton will present the awards; the Godspell cast will entertain and Acting Company Alumnus Hamish Linklater (Seminar) emcees the evening for an industry-filled audience of producers, directors, entertainers and other notables including The Honorable Thomas Kean, legendary record producer Clive Davis, New York Times writer Enid Nemy and The Broadway League's Charlotte St. Martin. For ticket Information call: 212-258-3111 .

At The Acting Company's Masquerade Gala on November 14 at Capitale, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Joseph Benincasa, Chairman and President respectively of The Actors Fund, will accept the Joan Warburg Humanitarian Award honoring the Fund's extraordinary legacy of providing health and human services to the entertainment community since 1882. James Bundy, Dean of Yale School of Drama and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, will receive the John Houseman Award recognizing his profound commitment to the development of classical actors and a national audience for the theater. David Hyde Pierce and Charles S. Dutton will present the awards; the Godspell cast will entertain and Acting Company Alumnus Hamish Linklater (Seminar) emcees the evening for an industry-filled audience of producers, directors, entertainers and other notables including The Honorable Thomas Kean, legendary record producer Clive Davis, New York Times writer Enid Nemy and The Broadway League's Charlotte St. Martin. For ticket Information call: 212-258-3111 .

The Actors Fund's annual gala last night, May 23, 2011 at the New York Marriott Marquis honored Tony and Emmy Award winning actress and current star of 'The Addams Family,' Bebe Neuwirth ('Chicago,' 'Sweet Charity,' 'Cheers,' 'Frasier'); Tony, Emmy and Academy Award winning actor Al Pacino ('The Godfather: Parts I, II and III,' 'Scent of a Woman,' HBO's 'Angels in America' and 'You Don't Know Jack,' 'The Merchant of Venice'), and Vice President, Market General Manager for New York City's Marriott & Renaissance Hotels Michael J. Stengel. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the starry event and brings you photo coverage below!

'The Thomashefskys' were on stage again last night as Michael Tilson Thomas & the New York Philharmonic presented his acclaimed multi-media concert of the Music and Memories of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky This years gala honored David and Sylvia Steiner as well as Tilson Thomas. Folksbiene is the sole surviving professional Yiddish Theatre in America and it preserves and adds to the legacy of Yiddish theatre, which flourished on Second Avenue and was domnated by Tilson Thomas's legendary grandparents ‘The Thomashefskys.'