Jacquelin Murphy-Stahl News

Fred & Adele Astaire Awards Producer Patricia Watt, The Douglas Watt Family Fund for the Performing Arts, & art consultant Julie Keyes hosted a kickoff cocktail reception for the committees and sponsors of the 30th Fred & Adele Astaire Awards Gala at the theater district's Remi Restaurant. Astaire Awards Associate Producer Carolyn Kendall Buchter and Alix Michel, the Co-Chairs of the 30th Anniversary Awards Gala were also on hand to welcome guests that included such theater world glitterati as 5 time Astaire Award winner Susan Stroman, producers Emanuel Azenberg, Wendy Federman and Dan Whitten, SDC Executive Director Laura Penn, Lee Roy Reams, Bruce Michael, NYC Dance Alliance Executive Director Joe Lanteri, J. Elaine Marcos (Priscilla: Queen of the Desert), Kearann Giovanni (Hugh Jackman Back to Broadway), Meggie Cansler (Wicked), Rob Ashford (How to Succeed...), actresses Sondra Lee, Sarah Bierstock, Cassandra Seidenfeld Lyster & Jacquelin Murphy. Also lending their support for the 30th annual Awards which will take place in spring 2012 were Sara Johnson, Wendy Diamond, Kirk Pacheco, Suzy & Lincoln Boehm, Lynn Surry, filmmaker AlBert Maysles, Andrew Wargo, Caroline Lieberman, Pamela Morgan, Regina Kravitz, Barry Minsky, Joel Breiter.

Emmy award winning actor Richard Thomas currently starring in the hit play 'Race' on Broadway announced the nominees for the 28th Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards honoring excellence in dance and choreography on Stage and in Film at a by-invitation-only cocktail reception at famed celebrity watering hole Elaine's.

The event was a special toast to nine time Tony award winner Tommy Tune who will receive the group's Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Brooke Shields at the awards gala benefiting The Auditory Oral School of New York.

John Randolph Hearst hosted a poolside cocktail party to support Ellen Adler and her son Tom Oppenheim, President and Artistic Director of Stella Adler Studio of Acting, upon the announcement of the upcoming 2nd Harold Clurman Festival of the Arts.