Primary Stages Honors Daryl Roth & Jack O'Brien Tonight

Primary Stages will honor Broadway producer Daryl Roth and Tony Award-winning director Jack O'Brien at Primary Stages' 23rd Anniversary Gala Benefit at a private club in Manhattan on Monday, November 12 at 6:30PM.

"At the Primary Stages Gala Benefit each year, we honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the American theater. This is certainly true of Daryl Roth, who has produced an extraordinary number of news plays and musicals, and has provided significant support to the non-profit and commercial theater communities," stated Primary Stages Artistic Director Andrew Leynse.  He went on to add, "Jack O'Brien is a very talented director of new plays and musicals as well as an accomplished writer, lyricist and producer, and an avid supporter of non-profit theater.  It is a great honor to recognize these two worthy individuals."

Daryl Roth is privileged to have produced five Pulitzer-Prize winning plays: Proof; Wit; How I Learned to Drive; Three Tall Women; and Anna in the Tropics.  Her recent Broadway credits include Curtains; Inherit the Wind; The Year of Magical Thinking; and Coram Boy.  Other distinguished productions include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Caroline, or Change; Salome; Medea; The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Beckett/Albee; Old Wicked Songs; The Play About the Baby; Thom Pain; and De La Guarda.  Mrs. Roth is also the creative force behind two theaters in Union Square, The Daryl Roth Theatre and The DR2 Theatre which have helped make vibrant theater accessible to new audiences.

Jack O'Brien has won three Tony Awards and four Drama Desk Awards for his direction of shows such as The Coast of Utopia; Henry IV; Hairspray; and The Invention of Love.  Other noteworthy credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; The Full Monty; Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Imaginary Friends; Two Shakespearean Actors; Two Trains Running; The Piano Lesson; The Cocktail Hour; and Porgy and Bess.  Mr. O'Brien has served as Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theater in San Diego since 1981.

The evening's honorary co-chairs are Tony Award-winning playwrights Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein and Tom Stoppard, and producer John Breglio. Celebrity guests confirmed for the evening include Brooke Berman (playwright of upcoming, Hunting & Gathering), Lee Blessing (playwright), A.R. Gurney, Richard Easton, Penny Fuller, Charles Busch, Jerry Mitchell, Elaine Stritch, Marc Shaiman, Scott Whitman, Marsha Mason and David Hyde Pierce.  The evening's activities include a silent auction, as well as cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, dinner, and great entertainment from some of Broadway's leading artists.

VIP Tables and individual tickets, ranging from $400 - $10,000, are now on sale.   For more information, or to purchase tables or tickets, contact Director of Development, at 212-840-9705, ext 214.