CELEBRITIES

Item Description

You and a guest will be amongst the elite few who get to attend the highly-anticipated New York Philharmonic’s concert performance of Show Boat on Friday, November 7, 2014 at 8:00 PM. What's more, after the performance, you will go backstage to meet the star of the show, Grammy, Emmy and Tony nominee Vanessa Williams.

SHOW BOAT:
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's groundbreaking musical version of Edna Ferber's novel examines the lives of Cap'n Andy and his troupe of traveling show boat performers, including his naïve daughter Magnolia, her gambling husband Gaylord Ravenal, the tragic mixed-race actress Julie, and black stevedore Joe, who marvels at the constancy of the "Ol' Man River" they travel on. Show Boat includes musical favorites like "Ol' Man River," "Make Believe," and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Since its first production in 1927, the musical has been revived on Broadway six times — most recently in a Tony-winning 1994 revival.

VANESSA WILLIAMS:
Vanessa Williams made her film debut in 1986 in Under the Gun, and subsequently starred in features such as Eraser, Hoodlum, Soul Food, Dance with Me, Light It Up, Shaft, and Johnson Family Vacation. More recent credits include the independent features My Brother, Somebody Like You, Disney’s Hannah Montana: The Movie, Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. Ms. Williams starred in ABC’s critically acclaimed, hit series "Ugly Betty," for which she earned three Emmy nominations as Wilhelmina Slater. In the fall of 2010 she joined the cast of ABC’s "Desperate Housewives" as Renee Perry.

Her albums The Right Stuff, The Comfort Zone, and The Sweetest Days earned multiple Grammy nominations; her single “Colors of the Wind” won an Academy Award; and her most recent album, The Real Thing, garnered an NAACP nomination for Outstanding Jazz Artist.

In 1994 Ms. Williams appeared on Broadway in Kander & Ebb’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, and in 2002 she received a Tony nomination for her performance as The Witch in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. She also appeared with Cicely Tyson in the Tony-nominated The Trip to Bountiful, in which both actresses reprised their roles in Lifetime’s television adaptation. Vanessa Williams most recently appeared in After Midnight, the musical revue set in Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club.

In 2007 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in December 2010 the International Press Academy awarded her the Mary Pickford Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the Entertainment Industry. In April 2012 she and her mother Helen landed on The New York Times bestseller list after publishing the memoir You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-Nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Hollywood, Love, Loss (and Each Other).

These performances will mark Vanessa Williams’s New York Philharmonic debut.

Item Special Note

Courtesy of Vanessa Williams. 

Availability: The winner must attend the 8:00 pm, Friday, November 7 performance. Seat location subject to availability.

PLEASE NOTE: In order prevent credit card fraud, if the winning bid exceeds $1,000, The Drama League of New York will require a signed credit card authorization form, a photocopy of both sides of the purchasing credit card, and proof of identity (state-issued photo ID – private ID numbers may be blacked out), OR payment via check or money order before arranging the prize package for the winner.