Woman of the Year, the 1981 Kander & Ebb musical that won four Tony Awards including Best Book and Best Score, will get a concert performance at Feinstein’s/54 Below on November 29—but with a special twist. Each song will be performed by a different star.
Based on the 1942 film of the same title starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, the Broadway musical provided a vehicle for Lauren Bacall as a TV reporter who goes into battle mode when she is parodied by a chauvinistic cartoonist.
The club's Rob Schneider told Playbill that he has already lined up Christine Pedi as one of the actresses who will be playing the Bacall/Hepburn role of Tess Harding. She played Matron Mama Morton in Kander & Ebb’s Chicago in 2013 and recently appeared in Jerry's Girls Off-Broadway.
Schneider said, “The idea for the concert is that each song will be sung by an actress associated with the work of Kander and Ebb. This will also extend to the male characters as well. For example, we have Robert Cuccioli and Jim Walton (And the World Goes ’Round), Todd Buonopane (Chicago), plus some original cast members like Michael Kubala.”
More stars (and their assigned songs) will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets ($35–$80 plus a $25 minimum) are on sale now at 54Below.com. There will be two shows, 7 and 9:30 PM, on November 29.
A portion of the proceeds from the event will be donated to The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative.
Pedi has been a special guest performer on Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas cruises. Cabins are available for Broadway on the Danube River with Michael Feinstein for November 3-13, 2017, also featuring Rachel Bay Jones, Julia Murney, Christopher Fitzgerald, Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, Brandon Uranowitz, and Seth Rudetsky, as well as other exciting talent to be announced.
Tickets are also now on sale for Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas July 2018 cruise to Iceland, accompanied by Judy Kuhn, Christine Ebersole, Rob McClure, Jarrod Spector, Carmen Cusack, and Sierra Boggess. Visit PlaybillTravel.com for booking and information.
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