Primary Stages To Honor LuPone At Gala 10/27

Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director), Off-Broadway's preeminent theater company, will honor Tony Award-winning actress Patti LuPone and The Baruch-Routh-Frankel-Viertel Group at this year's Primary Stages 24th Anniversary Gala Benefit to be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel (109 East 42nd Street) on Monday, October 27, 2008.

"Our Gala is a night to honor people who have made significant contributions to the theater.  We are thrilled to have this opportunity to honor Patti LuPone and The Baruch-Routh-Frankel-Viertel Group.  Patti is a phenomenal actor who consistently brings excitement and life to the productions she works on," stated Primary Stages Artistic Director Andrew Leynse.   "And, The Baruch-Routh-Frankel-Viertel team, continue to champion and support new works both on and off-Broadway and throughout the world."

Patti LuPone swept the 2008 theatre awards winning the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for her performance as Rose in the critically-acclaimed new Broadway production of the classic Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents  musical Gypsy, directed by the show's author, Mr. Laurents, currently at the St. James Theatre.

The Baruch-Routh-Frankel-Viertel Group has produced and general managed a wide range of plays and musicals on and off Broadway, in London and on tour for the past 23 years. Currently: Hairspray, Gypsy, Young Frankenstein, and Stomp in NY, Stomp on tour, Stomp Out Loud in Las Vegas, and Hairspray in London.  Previous productions include The Producers, Company, Sweeney Todd, The Fantasticks, The Sound of Music, Swing!, Smokey Joe s Cafe, The Weir, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Angels in America, Driving Miss Daisy, Penn & Teller, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Oleanna, Mnemonic, The Cocktail Hour, Love Letters, Marvin's Room, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Little Shop of Horrors, Jeffrey, Song of Singapore, and many others. Their shows have been awarded 35 Tonys, 46 Drama Desk Awards, 37 Outer Critics Awards, 4 Grammys, 8 Olivier Awards and 2 Pulitzer Prizes and have been featured in The New York Times crossword puzzle ten times.

Past honorees have included Daryl Roth and Jack O'Brien (2007), Julie Harris (2006), Susan Stroman (2005), Horton Foote and Primary Stages Founder and Executive Producer Casey Childs (2004), Harvey Fierstein (2003), A.R. Gurney (2001), John Guare (2000), Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1998), Stephen Sondheim (1997), Wendy Wasserstein (1996) and Terrence McNally (1995).

For additional information, tickets and sponsorships contact Sue Breger at 212-840-9705 or sue@primarystages.org.

Primary Stages launches its 24th season with the NY Premiere of Buffalo Gal by A.R. Gurney now in performance through August 30th.  The fall continues with the NY premiere of  A Body of Water by Lee Blessing (September 30, 2008 - November 9, 2008), the NY premiere of the new comedy, Love Child, written and performed by Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton (October 12, 2008 – November 19, 2008).  The second half of the 2008-2009 season kicks off with Shipwrecked! An Entertainment — The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told By Himself) by Donald Margulies (January 27, 2009 - March 7, 2009), concluding with the world premiere of a new comedy, Chasing Manet by Tina Howe (March 24, 2009 - May 2, 2009), featuring Tony Award-Winner Jane Alexander.  For additional information about Primary Stages, please visit www.primarystages.org.

Primary Stages was founded in 1984 as a New York State non-profit theater company with the mission of producing new plays and nurturing the development of new playwrights.  In our 23 seasons we have produced over 90 productions of new plays by such playwrights as Brooke Berman, Lee Blessing, Charles Busch, Constance Congdon, A.R. Gurney, Michael Hollinger, Willy Holtzman, David Ives, Julia Jordan, Romulus Linney, Michele Lowe, Donald Margulies, Melissa Manchester, Terrence McNally, Connor McPherson, John Henry Redwood, Lanie Robertson, John Patrick Shanley and Mac Wellman.  We seek to provide a supportive environment where writers are encouraged to explore the scope of their creative vision.  Our productions and our artists have received considerable critical acclaim including Obie, AUDELCO, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel (Outstanding Body of Work), Drama League, Drama Desk, Helen Hayes (Washington, DC), L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation, and Joseph Jefferson (Chicago) awards and nominations.  Many of our productions have been world premieres and all of them have been New York premieres.  Lincoln Center Theater is moving our 2007 production of Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate to the Booth Theatre on Broadway this fall.  Primary Stages continues to nurture playwrights through commissions, our weekly PrimeTime Reading Series and our emerging playwrights development program, The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, now in its 13th year.  We offer a wide array of classes and workshops at Primary Stages School of Theater, host free matinee performances for NYC public high school students, and enhance student' appreciation of the theater through in-school programming with our Primary Voices program.  To learn more about Primary Stages please visit our website at www.primarystages.org.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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