The Alliance Theatre’s Saturday night gala featured a bit of improv.
Megan Hilty, along with Atlanta's beloved jazz singer Francine Reed and adorable young tap dancer Leilani Negron, performed at the event, held in the W Midtown's ballroom.
Hilty, known for her role as Ivy Lynn on the former NBC musical drama "Smash" and for her Broadway role as Glinda in the hit show "Wicked," arrived following a performance earlier in the evening at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. She had planned on singing at the Alliance event with just a piano player accompanying her. Then she noticed that band members who had performed with Reed, who went on first, had left their standing bass and drum set behind.
Would it be all right, Hilty wondered aloud, for her band to borrow the other musicians’ instruments? The audience applauded the idea and suddenly she had a trio backing her.
“This is life in the theater!” Hilty quipped.
The fundraiser, titled "A Tony Evening," was chaired by Jada Loveless and Stephanie Blank with Tracie Arnold and Jonathan Shapero serving as auction chairs. The auction committee included Kristin Rambo Adams, James Anderson, Melanie Boltax, Erin Brown, Catharine Burkett, Mary Hattaway, Andrea Jones and Eleanor Ringel.
"A Tony Evening" honored ardent Alliance supporters Vicki and Howard Palefsky, who are active in the city's cultural community and particularly involved with the Alliance.
Vicki Palefsky shared her and her husband’s lifetime loves of live performances during a touching and humorous acceptance speech. She grew up in Alabama and used to love seeing the Ice Capades at Montgomery’s Normandale Mall as a child. Her husband grew up in the Bronx, and his parents would take the family to see a Broadway show each year as an annual splurge.
The couple had lived in San Francisco before relocating to Atlanta, a decision spurred by the city’s large airport and vibrant arts scene. It was Vicki’s idea to launch the “Tony Evening” event several years ago, and she confessed that not everyone thought an annual black-tie gala was feasible.
“They are nameless,” she said of the detractors, “… and they are dead to me!”
In closing, Vicki said she and Howard wished everyone “the wealth of a Republican and the sex life of a Democrat” as the crowd roared with laughter.
Among the evening's many highlights was the live auction. One of the items up for grabs was the dazzling "Pearl of the Alliance," a piece custom-created by Buckhead jeweler Jonathan Shapero. After a fierce bidding war, the item went home with, guess who? Vicki Palefsky.
At the end of the evening, Hilty concluded with the perfect number: “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
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