An Evening Of Talent Should Result In A Library’s Continued Growth

WASHINGTON — “Starry, Starry Night 2000” — a gala revue of music, theater and dance featuring stars from Broadway, Hollywood and Connecticut — will be held this year on Saturday, October 7, beginning at 7:30 pm, at Shepaug Valley High School. A benefit for Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury, the show will be followed by a “Meet the Stars” champagne-dessert reception at the library on South Street.

Film critic Rex Reed, actors George Grizzard and Karen Valentine, Broadway star Jeanne Lehman and singer/pianist Billy Stritch are among the luminaries with Litchfield County connections who will perform in this year’s show.

“We have another star-studded cast for ‘Starry, Starry Night 2000,’” said Susan G. Purdy, who has chaired the event since its beginning in 1993 and will produce this year’s show. “The town of Roxbury is very fortunate to have so many talented people who are willing to help the library.”

Three past galas, which featured such local celebrities as Dustin Hoffman, Christine Baranski, Charles Strouse, Richard Maltby and Arthur Miller, raised a total of more than $110,000 for the library’s endowment fund. This year’s funds will be dedicated to automating the library’s operations with Bibliomation, a statewide computer system that will greatly increase available resources and services.

Roxbury’s Rex Reed will be master of ceremonies for this year’s revue. The set will be designed by Washington resident Paul Leonard, and the director will be Washington’s Mark Devine, whose recent successes include the acclaimed Side by Side by Sondheim for Brookfield Country Players as well the Festival of Performing Arts for the Susan B. Anthony Project in Torrington and the major fundraisers for New Milford’s campaign against the SEMPRA power plant.

George Grizzard and Karen Valentine will perform an original sketch by Bill C. Davis. Jeanne Lehman, who charmed the 1995 “Starry, Starry Night” audience with her rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s “I’m Not Getting Married,” will perform songs from her dazzling Broadway repertoire, including the recent Broadway revival of The Sound of Music.

Billy Stritch, one of the hottest performers on the current jazz and cabaret scene who delighted the audience of “Starry, Starry Night 1998,” will return with his own compositions. Mr Stritch will also accompany both Jeanne Lehman and Marti Steven, a New Preston resident known for her stage appearances on Broadway and in London.

Comedian/singer Jim Caruso and actress/singer Loni Ackerman (Cats and George M!) are two more returning performers who can be counted on to inject humor into the show. Other highlights will include a solo by Cynthia Quinn, a featured dancer with the internationally acclaimed troupe, MOMIX; and a cello/mime act by B.J. Goodwin and Stephen Katz, the well-known creators of “Seen and Heard: Cello Movement Theater.”

Tickets, which have sold out quickly in previous years, are $45 per person for the performance. Tickets to  the performance and the reception are $125.  To order tickets, send a check made payable to Minor Memorial Library to Starry, Starry Night 2000, 31 Weller’s Bridge Road, Roxbury, CT 06783. For more information, call 860/355-2963.