Betty Buckley, Barbara Cook, and Rex Smith to be Honored at Shubert New Haven’s 100 Anniversary Gala

Broadway World.com
February 27, 2015

In recognition of its 100th Anniversary, the Shubert will celebrate with a Gala Benefit on Saturday, March 21 beginning at 6:00pm. This exclusive evening will include an elegant sit-down dinner on the legendary Shubert Stage, dancing, theatrical entertainment and a tribute to honored guest starts.

CAPA is delighted to announce that Betty Buckley, Barbara Cook and Rex Smith will be attending the Gala as the Shubert’s honored guests. The three artists will be the first recipients of the Maurice Bailey Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre, a new award inaugurated for the Shubert’s 100th Anniversary. WNPR’s Colin McEnroe will serve as the Master of Ceremonies.

All three performers have graced the legendary Shubert stage a number of times and have added to the theatre’s rich legacy. Betty Buckley appeared on the Shubert stage in the 1969 World Premiere of 1776 and returned to the Shubert on December 31, 1999 for the Millennial New Year’s Eve Concert. Barbara Cook first appeared at the Shubert in 1951 in Flahooley and followed in Plain and Fancy (1954) and She Loves Me (1963) – all Shubert World Premieres. Ms. Cook also appeared in the Shubert’s 75th Anniversary Performance and returned in 2001 in her one-woman show, Mostly Sondheim. Rex Smith has been seen on the Shubert stage in the touring productions of Anything Goes (1988), Grease (1994), Annie Get Your Gun (2000) and Kiss Me, Kate (2001).

Betty Buckley, who has been called “The Voice of Broadway,” is one of theater’s most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame for 2012. Betty Buckley won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS, and has also starred on Broadway in 1776, Pippin, Sunset Blvd., Carrie and Triumph of Love (Tony Nomination), and in London Promises Promises, Sunset Blvd. (Olivier Nomination) and Dear World. Recently she starred in the World Premiere of Horton Foote’s The Old Friends for which she received a Drama Desk Award. Her work in television includes starring for three seasons in the HBO series “Oz” and as Abby Bradford in the hit series “Eight Is Enough.” Ms. Buckley has recorded 16 CD’s and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. She is the recipient of the Texas Medal of Arts and two Honorary Doctorates for her contribution to Theater and she is an inductee into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.

Barbara Cook has delighted audiences around the world for more than 50 years. Considered “Broadway’s favorite ingénue” during the heyday of the Broadway musical, Ms. Cook’s popularity continues to thrive with an ever-growing mantle of honors including the Tony, Grammy, Drama Desk, a New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, her citation as a Living New York Landmark, an induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame and a 2011 Kennedy Center Honor. Her many credits include the creation of three classic roles in the American musical theater: Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, Marian the Librarian in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man (Tony Award) and Amalia in Bock and Harnick’s She Loves Me (Drama Desk Award).

Rex Smith made his Broadway debut as Danny Zuko in the musical Grease, and starred as Frederic in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of The Pirates of Penzance. For the film adaptation, he reprised the role of Frederic along with cast members Kevin Kline and Linda Rondstadt. His Broadway credits also include Sunset Blvd., Grand Hotel, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Human Comedy. Rex Smith was a popular teen idol and also had a Top Ten single “You Take My Breath Away.”

The Shubert’s new Maurice Bailey Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre was created in recognition of the theatre’s 100th Anniversary in honor of Maurice Bailey, the Shubert’s Managing Director during the Golden Era of the theatre’s legendary history. The Shubert brothers ran the Shubert, New Haven from 1914 through the 1940-41 season. In the Fall of 1941 the Shubert Theatre was leased to Mr. Bailey who ran the theatre for the next 35 years. During this time, Mr. Bailey continued to enhance the Shubert’s enviable reputation as a preeminent “house,” and under his management the Shubert earned the title “Birthplace of the Nation’s Greatest Hits” for the number of long-run productions that first came to life on the Shubert stage including My Fair Lady with Julie Andrews, The King and I with Yul Brynner and A Streetcar Named Desire with Marlon Brando.

Gala ticket prices range from $300.00 to $1,000.00

For information and tickets, please call the Development Office at 203.624.1825 or email [email protected]

Proceeds from the Gala Event will benefit the operation and care of the historic Shubert Theatre.