Happenings

Published on April 22nd, 2019 | by Dr. Jerry Doby

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Graciela Daniele, Flody Suarez, Jeffrey Seller, and Cher to be Honored at the 3Rd Annual Chita Rivera Awards

Presented by the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation, Inc.

Graciela Daniele, Flody Suarez, Jeffrey Seller, and Cher will be honored at the 3rd Annual Chita Rivera Awards (www.ChitaRiveraAwards.com), taking place at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts  (566 LaGuardia Place, off Washington Square Park) on Sunday, May 19 at 7:30pm, it was announced today by Joe Lanteri, Founder and Executive Director of the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation (www.NYCDAFoundation.net). Lanteri produces in conjunction with Patricia Watt.

Dancer, choreographer and theater director Graciela Daniele will receive the third annual Lifetime Achievement Award, and Flody Suarez, Jeffrey Seller, and Cher (producers of The Cher Show on Broadway) will be honored with the Ambassador for the Arts Award honoring their contribution to the convergence of theater, film, and television.

Graciela has worked with Chita Rivera on four shows: Chicago, The Rink, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, and The Visit.

Tickets for the Chita Rivera Awards are currently on sale and can be purchased at www.ChitaRiveraAwards.com or by calling 1-855-NYC-5678. Ticket prices are as follows: $100 for a balcony ticket to the Awards ceremony, $300 for a par-terre ticket to the Awards ceremony and admission to the red carpet pre-show cocktail party, $500 for an orchestra ticket to the Awards ceremony and admission to the pre-show red carpet cocktail party and VIP reception, and $5000 for 10 Orchestra tickets to the Awards ceremony, admission for 10 to the pre-show red carpet cocktail party & 1 table at the VIP reception.

The nominations for the Chita Rivera Awards will be announced on Friday, April 26th and the nominee reception will be on Monday, April 29.

Carrying the name of one of the great dance icons of the American musical theater, the Chita Rivera Awards celebrate dance and choreographic excellence past, present and future. The mission of the awards is to honor the superb achievements of the nominees, and also to recognize the talent and passion of all theatrical choreographers and dancers. Additionally, through education and scholarships, the awards nurture future generations and preserve notable dance history.

Nominators consider outstanding choreography, featured dancers and ensembles in Broadway and Off Broadway shows, as well as outstanding choreography in film during the theatrical season. The Off Broadway and Film committees make nominations and name winners in those categories. Broadway nominees are designated by the Broadway nominating committee and winners selected by the Broadway awarding committee.

Tickets to the Chita Rivera Awards are available to the general public at www.ChitaRiveraAwards.com

2018-2019 CHITA RIVERA AWARD NOMINATING COMMITTEES

The 2019 Awarding Committee

Chair: Sylviane Gold

Gary Chryst

Anna Kisselgoff

Robert LaFosse

Donna McKechnie

Wendy Perron

Lee Roy Reams

Broadway Nominating Committee

Chair: Wendy Federman     Robert La Fosse

Melinda Atwood          Joe Lanteri

Caitlin Carter                                     Donna McKechnie

Don Correia             Michael Milton

Gary Chryst                                        Mary Beth O’Connor

Sandy Duncan                                   Laura Penn

Mercedes Ellington        Wendy Perron

Sylviane Gold                                    Lee Roy Reams

Jonathan Herzog                              Andy Sandberg

Anna Kisselgoff           Randy Skinner

 

Off Broadway Nominating Committee

Chair: Jonathan Herzog

Deidre Goodwin

Scott Jovovich

Robert LaFosse

Michael Milton

 

Film Committee

Chair: Jonathan Herzog

Co-Chair: Rex Reed

Wilhelmina Frankfurt

Joanna Ney

Mary Beth O’Connor

Andy Sandberg

 

About Chita Rivera

A theatrical icon and one of Broadway’s greatest triple-threat talents, Chita Rivera is one of the most nominated performers in Tony Award history having earned 10 nominations, won twice and received the 2018 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.  A versatile actress/singer/dancer, she recently starred in The Visit, the final John Kander/Fred Ebb/Terrence McNally musical directed by John Doyle and choreographed by Graciela Daniele on Broadway, the Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Broadway and touring productions of The Dancer’s Life, a dazzling new musical celebrating her spectacular career, written by Terrence McNally and directed by Graciela Daniele and the revival of the Broadway musical Nine with Antonio Banderas. She trained as a ballerina (from age nine) before receiving a scholarship to the School of American Ballet from the legendary choreographer George Balanchine. Chita’s first appearance (age 17) was as a principal dancer in Call Me Madam.  Her electric performance as Anita in the original Broadway premiere of West Side Story brought her stardom, which she repeated in London. Her career is highlighted by starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, The Rink (Tony Award), Chicago, Jerry’s Girls, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award), and the original Broadway casts of Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Seventh Heaven and Mr. Wonderful.  On tour: Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Call Me Madam, Threepenny Opera, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me Kate, Zorba, Can-Can with The Rockettes. Chita was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2009 and received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in 2002. In 2018 she was honored as a Living Landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy; in 2016 she headlined at Carnegie Hall and in 2015, Great Performances aired their special Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ To Do, a retrospective of her extraordinary life and career nationally on PBS. Her current solo CD is entitled And Now I Swing.  Her most treasured production is her daughter, singer/dancer/choreographer Lisa Mordente.

 

About Graciela Daniele

Graciela Daniele has directed on Broadway, at Lincoln Center and the Public Theater, and at regional theaters and has earned ten Tony Award nominations and six Drama Desk nominations.  Her Broadway Director/Choreographic credits include Chita Rivera, The Dancer’s Life, Annie Get Your Gun, Marie Christine, Once on This Island, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Dangerous Game.  She has Musical Staged/Choreographed such shows as Ragtime (Astaire, Ovation [L.A.], NAACP, and Callaway Award), The Goodbye Girl, Zorbawith Anthony Quinn, The Rink starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  She choreographed the New York Shakespeare Festival production of The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway, Los Angeles and London, the motion picture of Pirates, and three Woody Allen films including Mighty Aphrodite, for which she won the 1996 Fosse Award, and Everyone Say I Love You, for which she won the 1997 Fosse Award.  Ms. Daniele directed and choreographed A New Brain, which enjoyed an extended run in the summer of 1998 at Lincoln Center Theatre.  She is recipient of the 1998 “Mr. Abbot” Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Director/Choreographer.  Ms. Daniele directed and choreographed the Michael John LaChuisa’s Little Fish (Second Stage) and Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center Theatre) along with the Lincoln Center Theatre production of William Finn’sElegies, A Song Cycle. Most recently, she has choreographed The Visit on Broadway and the world premiere of Sousatzka at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.

 

About Flody Suarez

Flody Suarez is a Television/Film executive and Producer who is currently producing The Cher Show for Broadway and What’s New Pussycat, A Tom Jones-ian Musical for the West End as well as executive producing “Rise,” a musical drama for NBC, written by Jason Katims. Prior to moving back to NY Suarez Executive Produced the ABC dance pilot “Grace” produced by Carrie Ann Inaba and choreographed by Mia Michaels costarring Debbie Allen. Seller/Suarez is currently developing two comedies for NBC, a Neil Gaiman drama project based on the best-selling novel, “Interworld” and the drama “The Role” set at Julliard for FreeForm through his Seller/Suarez TV production company at NBC Universal. Moving back to NY in 2013, Suarez consulted on NBC’s “The Blacklist” and “The Michael J Fox” show for Sony Television and then consulted on the launch of the Emmy winning “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” for TBS. Prior to that, Suarez was vice president of Development for NBC, where he oversaw production on the Emmy-winning series “ER,” Emmy-nominated series “3rd Rock from the Sun,” “Just Shoot Me” and “Men Behaving Badly.” He segued to primetime series from NBC’s communications department, where he spearheaded launch campaigns for “Friends,” “News Radio” and “The Screen Actors Guild Awards,” as well as directing campaigns for “Seinfeld,” “Frasier,” “Law & Order,” “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “The Laugh-In 25th Anniversary Special,” “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story” and over 100 NBC television movies and specials.

 

About Jeffrey Seller

Jeffrey Seller is the winner of four Tony Awards for Best Musical:  Rent (1996), Avenue Q (2004), In the Heights (2008) and Hamilton (2015). Jeffrey also produced and/or developedDe La Guarda (1998), Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party (2000), Baz Luhrmann’s direction of Puccini’s La Bohème (2002), High Fidelity (2006), the Broadway revival of West Side Story(2009), Sting’s The Last Ship (2014), and this season’s The Cher Show.  Seller, along with former business partner Kevin McCollum, created the first Broadway lottery for Rent, which, for 22 years, has been a popular way to see Broadway shows, often in the first two rows, at an affordable price.  He is the only producer to have produced two Pulitzer Prize-winning musicals–Rent and Hamilton. Jeffrey directed the first production of Fly at Dallas Theatre Center in 2013 and The Man in the Ceiling, by Jules Feiffer and Andrew Lippa, at the Bay Street Theater in 2017.  In 2018, Jeffrey was executive producer of the NBC series Rise, based on Michael Sokolove’s book, Drama High. Jeffrey grew up in Oak Park, Michigan and is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan.

 

About Cher

Cher is a worldwide superstar and household name for more than 50 years, Cher has conquered more challenges than a handful of other talents put together—recording, concerts, film and Broadway acting, television and directing. Along the way she has been richly rewarded with an Academy Award, a Grammy, an Emmy, three Golden Globes, a Cannes Film Festival Award, a People’s Choice Award and, most recently, a Kennedy Center Honor. Beginning as a studio backing singer in the 1960s, Cher met fledgling producer Sonny Bono and they quickly became pop sensations with the worldwide smash “I Got You Babe.” Their attention-grabbing hair and clothes were an early hint of Cher’s subsequent influence on the world of fashion. The couple’s popularity peaked with “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” TV series until they split up in the mid-1970s. In 1982 Cher took a huge gamble to appear on Broadway in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, but it worked and prompted a hugely successful acting career which culminated in an Academy Award for best actress in Moonstruck. Cher stunned the music world with yet another musical re-invention in the 1980s, culminating with her controversial hit video for “If I Could Turn Back Time.” But it would be her venture into the world of dance music with the Grammy-winning Believe that eclipsed it all. The subsequent three-year Farewell Tour played to more than three million fans, was captured in an Emmy-winning TV special and is one of the most successful tours in history. Cher remains very active as a stage performer, actress and recording artist.

 

About NYC Dance Alliance Foundation, Inc. (NYCDAF)

The NYC Dance Alliance Foundation, Inc. (NYCDAF), founded in 2010 by Executive Director Joe Lanteri, is committed to broadening performing arts awareness while advocating education and high standards of excellence in dance.  The Foundation invests in the next generation of professional performers by offering scholarships for secondary and college education.  To date, over 250 talented teenagers have shared in nearly $2.5 million awarded directly through NYCDAF.  Those recipients are represented in 42 of the most prestigious university arts programs in the country.  Many have since graduated and are now represented on Broadway, as well as concert dance companies based in NYC and around the world. www.NYCDAFoundation.net

 

Photo courtesy of NYC Dance Alliance Foundation, Inc.



About the Author

Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.


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