You may not know it, but TDF is not all about TKTS.
The Theater Development Fund runs the half price ticket booth in Times Square, true. But the Fund is also the mothership of everything theater in New York. Not much of what goes on on Broadway and off and off would exist with out TDF.
So their annual Costumes & Cocktails event is a big deal, giving the TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards, celebrating the accomplishments of the theatrical design community.
This year’s honorees are three-time Tony Award-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes, costume and textile designer Wilberth Gonzalez, milliner and artisan Arnold Levine, and legendary scenic designer Robert Israel.
The gala, at TAO, opened with “Sunset Blvd.” star Nicole Scherzinger showing up a bit late to kick off the night. (She’s allowed. As she said, it was her only night off from her exhausting schedule.) Scherzinger delivered just the right pizzazz before other presenters like actress Kathy Najimy, legendary director Martha Clarke, and RuPaul’s “Drag Race” star Valentina took the stage.
Najimy presented three-time Tonu® Award-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes with the TDF/Irene Sharaff Award for Sustained Excellence in Costume Design. Barnes joked in his acceptance speech that he was famous for dressing stars in red dresses and sending them big staircases. He won his Tony for “Follies.” But I didn’t get the joke until I saw “Boop” a couple of nights later. Just as he said, Barnes sent the sensational Jasmine Amy Rogers right down a big staircase in one of his stunning gowns. He’s the go-to guy.
Valentina gave the TDF/Kitty Leech Ascending Artist Award to costumes and textile designer Wilberth Gonzalez; Tony winner Ann Hould-Ward toasted milliner and artisan Arnold S. Levine, Inc. with the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award; and legendary scenic designer Robert Israel was be honored by Clarke with the Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design.
Israel, an international artist and costume scenic designer, just saw his historic work on the opera, “Fidelio,” revived at the Metropolitan Opera to great acclaim last month.
I’d never been to the TDF gala before, but it was packed — far more even than we go to Tao for the New York Film Critics Circle dinner every year. And no one told me that the Costumers’ gang was so lively. They hit the dance floor with a vengeance may still be there for all I know!
