Pinkins, Vilanch, Garrett, Mason and More Set for
Do Re Mi — Comden & Green’s Broadway
Playbill.com
By Andrew Gans
January 19, 2006
The 22nd Annual Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (S.T.A.G.E.), which benefits various AIDS charities, will salute the works of Betty Comden and the late Adolph Green.Entitled Do Re Mi— Comden & Green’s Broadway, the March 10-12 concerts will be held at Cal State University Los Angeles’ Luckman Fine Arts Complex. David Galligan will direct with musical direction and arrangements by Gerald Sternbach. Show times are March 10 and 11 at 8 PM and March 12 at 3 PM.
Those currently scheduled to take part in the annual event include Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, veteran stage and screen legend Betty Garrett, recent Hairspray star Bruce Vilanch and cabaret favorites Wesla Whitfield and Karen Mason as well as Neile Adams, Adam Lambert, Ian Abercrombie, Clay Adkins, Paul Ainsley, Jamie Anderson, Mary Jo Catlett, Carole Cook, Cristalee, Nancy Dussault, Bill Hutton, Lorenzo Lamas, Rod McKuen, Linda Michele, Ann Morrison, Christine Pedi, Valarie Pettiford, Joan Ryan, Mark W. Smith, Sally Struthers, Ruth Williamson and JoAnne Worley.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the book and/or lyrics for On the Town; Bells Are Ringing; On the Twentieth Century; Wonderful Town; Hallelujah, Baby!; Applause; Peter Pan; A Doll’s Life; Do Re Mi and The Will Rogers Follies. Comden and Green’s films include “Singin’ in the Rain” and “The Band Wagon,” and they were both awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.
The first S.T.A.G.E. benefit took place in October 1984, honoring the music of Leonard Bernstein. Subsequent presentations have paid tribute to Stephen Sondheim (1985, 1987, 1996), Jule Styne (1988), Jerry Herman (1989), John Kander and Fred Ebb (1990), Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein (1991), Irving Berlin (1992), George and Ira Gershwin (1993), Harold Arlen (1995), Cole Porter (1997), Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe and Burton Lane (1998), Richard Adler, Jerry Bock and Cy Coleman (1999), Charles Strouse, Arthur Schwartz and Stephen Schwartz (2000), Jerome Kern (2001), Johnny Mercer (2002), Frank Loesser (2003), Andrew Lloyd Webber (2004) and Marvin Hamlisch and Harry Warren (2005).
Proceeds from this year’s event will benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles.
For ticket information call (323) 656-9069 or visit www.stagela.com.