FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHESTER THEATRE COMPANY to Host Conversation with Eddie Shapiro, Author of NOTHING LIKE A DAME
Author to discuss interviews with ‘greatest leading women of Broadway’
August 4, 2014 at 7:30pm at Chester Town Hall Theatre
CHESTER, MA (July 21, 2014) CTC will host A Conversation with Eddie Shapiro, author of NOTHING LIKE A DAME: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater. The event will include an interview with Eddie Shapiro by Westfield News Group Arts Reporter Mark G. Auerbach followed by a question and answer session. The event will conclude with a book signing of NOTHING LIKE A DAME; books will be available for sale. A Conversation with Eddie Shapiro will take place August 4 at 730pm at the Chester Town Hall in Chester, MA.
NOTHING LIKE A DAME: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater is a collection of exclusive interviews with twenty of the greatest leading women of Broadway, by journalist Eddie Shapiro.“The history of musical theater is full of incredible, indelible female roles,” writes Elaine Paige in her Foreword to NOTHING LIKE A DAME. “Elphaba, Cassie, Reno Sweeney, Nellie Forbush, Millie Dillmount, Marian the Librarian, Effie White, Ruth Sherwood, Lorelei Lee... Every one of these amazing characters has been played (and in many cases, created) by at least one of the incredible women in this book, who share their stories in the pages that follow.”
NOTHING LIKE A DAME features women who have devoted the majority of their careers to theater and have won at least one Tony Award. It includes Shapiro’s experience interviewing the “cantankerous, outspoken, and utterly charming” Elaine Stritch over tea at the Carlyle on Thanksgiving Day, chatting with the eighty-four year old Angela Lansbury in her Manhattan apartment, and asking Patti Lupone about her start in acting while eating her home-baked bread. Each interview is guided by Shapiro’s expert knowledge of these women’s careers, Broadway lore, and the details of some of Broadway’s most famous (and infamous) musicals.
Here also are icons like Chita Rivera, who describes the experience of starring in musicals for the past seven decades, right alongside contemporary Broadway stars like Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who discuss their roles in the smash-hit Wicked. This collection also includes dozens of photographs of the actresses in their best-known roles, making it a must- have for theater lovers.
Interviews with the following actresses are included: Elaine Stritch, Carol Channing, Chita Rivera, Donna McKechnie, Angela Lansbury, Leslie Uggams, Judy Kaye, Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone, Bebe Neuwirth, Donna Murphy, Lillias White, Karen Ziemba, Debra Monk, Victoria Clark, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Sutton Foster, Laura Benanti, and Tonya Pinkins (online at the companions website: http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199941209).
John Kander called NOTHING LIKE A DAME “a fascinating and remarkably authentic collection of conversations with theatre aristocracy.”
BIOGRAPHIES
Eddie Shapiro is the author and editor of Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater. He grew up singing (quite loudly) the music of Broadway. There is not a cast album he doesn’t know by heart or a show he hasn’t seen over the last 30 years. He has attended more than 1200 Broadway performances.
His theatre related criticism and coverage of the arts has appeared in several publications, most regularly in Out Magazine, Instinct and Backstage West. He has interviewed a multitude of entertainment luminaries including: Charles Busch, Jon Robin Baitz, Marc Cherry, Alan Cumming, Stockard Channing, Dame Edna, Florence Henderson, Nathan Lane, Michelle Lee, Eric McCormack, Terrence McNally, Donna Mills, Meagan Mullally, Ann Reinking, Gwen Verdon and Ben Vereen.
He is the former Director of AIDS Walk New York and AIDS Walk Los Angeles and the Producer of Gay Days at Disneyland.
TICKETS AND INFORMATION
Tickets are $15; tickets are available on CTC's website: www.chestertheatre.org, or by phone at 1-800-595-4TIX. To receive a brochure, contact the CTC office at 413-354-7770. CTC performances take place at Chester's Historic Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, MA.. For further information visit CTC's website at: www.chestertheatre.org.
About Chester Theatre Company
Chester Theatre Company, a professional theatre company located in the foothills of the Berkshires, produces 4 plays each summer, performed by top-flight actors, directors and designers from across the country. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Byam Stevens, CTC has earned a reputation for producing the best in contemporary theatre – 17 CTC productions have gone on to Off-Broadway, regional, national, and international engagements in the last 17 years. For further information go to CTC’s website: www.chestertheatre.org.
CTC’s season sponsor is the restaurant Roscoe’s. Other corporate sponsors this season include Baystate Heatlh, Esselon Café, Harvest Moon Realty, Morgan Stanley, New England Public Radio and Valley Advocate/Preview Magazine. CTC performances are supported, in part, by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Local Cultural Councils of Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Montgomery, Washington, Westfiled and Worthington.
Mark Auerbach (Moderator) juggles several hats as an arts reporter, journalist and public
relations specialist. He has covered theatre for both radio and print outlets over the years, and
currently serves as an arts reporter for The Westfield News Group in MA and its newspapers,
The Westfield Evening News, Longmeadow News, and Enfield Press. He writes features for
PRIME Magazine and a marketing column for the award-winning "Succeeding in Small
Business" blog. He learned about (and occasionally performed) musical theatre at Northfield
Mount Hermon School, American University, and The Yale School of Drama, but his favorite
role was in marketing and public relations with arts organizations like Wolf Trap (Washington,
DC), Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, Greater Miami Opera,
Springfield (MA) Symphony, and StageWest (Springfield, MA). He formed Mark G. Auerbach
Public Relations in 1987, with client based regionally and nationwide.
For more information please contact: Todd Trebour Marketing and Development 413-354-7770 todd@chestertheatre.org
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