Deaf West Theatre Sets Lineup for First NYC Gala at Joe's Pub
Barrett Foa will host the evening, with appearances by Michael Arden, Daniel Durant, and Sandra Mae Frank.
Deaf West Theatre has announced the lineup of performers for The 35th Anniversary Gala - One Night in New York on Monday, September 28 at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC), honoring Academy Award-winning actor Troy Kotsur, five-time Tony Award-winning producer Eva Price, and Tony Award-winning directors Zhailon Levingston & Bill Rauch.
Beginning at 6:30pm, the evening will be hosted by Barrett Foa (Oh, Mary!) and feature performances and appearances by three-time Tony Award winner Michael Arden (Deaf West's Spring Awakening, Parade, The Lost Boys), LJ Benet (The Lost Boys), Daniel Durant (Elephant Shoes, Deaf West's Spring Awakening), Sandra Mae Frank (Deaf West's Spring Awakening, New Amsterdam), Kathryn Gallagher (Jagged Little Pill, Deaf West's Spring Awakening), Tyrone Giordano (Deaf West's Big River), Josué Martinez (Deaf West's American Idiot), Tony Award nominee Michael McElroy (Rent, Deaf West's Big River), Tempress Chasity Moore (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), James Olivas (Elephant Shoes, Evita), Zachary Noah Piser (Maybe Happy Ending), Alona Jane Robbins (Deaf West's Whistle Down the Wind), Diego Andres Rodriguez (Evita, Sunset Blvd), and Alexandria Wailes (Deaf West's Big River, Deaf West's Spring Awakening), with additional performers to be announced.
Marking Deaf West's first-ever New York City gala, the event will celebrate 35 years of innovation, collaboration, education, and social change led by Deaf West since the theater's 1991 founding. The gala also solidifies the continued expansion of Deaf West's Los Angeles roots to the East Coast:
- Most recently, Deaf West's world premiere musical Elephant Shoes concluded its acclaimed run in a co-production at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey as the best-selling production in the theater's history. The Star-Ledger called Elephant Shoes 'a warm and moving romantic comedy...ambitious, innovative, and excellent. A wonderful exploration of fresh new methods of doing theater.'
- Last month, Deaf West presented a developmental concert reading of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind, reimagined with Tony Award-winning director Bill Rauch (CATS: The Jellicle Ball). Three performances marked the final event of New York Stage & Film's 2026 season.
- This fall, Deaf West will co-produce Love Me, an immersive and hilarious theatrical experience from the mind of Emmy Award-nominated comedian Drew Michael ('Saturday Night Live'), Off-Broadway at Soho Playhouse, beginning October 24.
The gala will be co-directed by Henry Gottfried (The Lost Boys, Cabaret) and Sandra Mae Frank (Deaf West's Spring Awakening, New Amsterdam), music directed by Meghann Zervoulis Bate (SIX, Cabaret), with casting by Spencer Gualdoni, CSA, and Rico Froehlich as production stage manager.
Tickets are on sale now. Visit www.deafwest.org/nycgala for more information.
Artistic director DJ Kurs said, 'Deaf West Theatre has been part of my life since I was a teenager, so serving as its Artistic Director these past fourteen years has been the honor of my life. We are carrying forward the work Ed Waterstreet and Linda Bove began thirty-five years ago in Los Angeles, and it means everything to mark this milestone in New York alongside the artists who have shaped Deaf West and believed in what it could be. The evening is also a celebration of a remarkable chapter: the world premiere of Elephant Shoes, our new adaptation of Whistle Down the Wind, and the growing home we are building for this work on the East Coast.'
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