Harlem’s Tamara Tunie shimmers with Bo at Marty Richards 80th Birthday at the Rubin Museum of Art

Tuesday night at the Rubin Museum of Art, Broadway and Hollywood legendary impresario, Marty Richards hosted an “Evening of Friends, Food and Dancing Celebrating the New Year and the Upcoming 80th Birthday…” of the man himself.

The evening benefited the Mary Lea Johnson Richards Research Institute. It was a scene straight out of a Marty Richards production – you know a lot of them “On the Twentieth Century,” the first Broadway musical he and his wife Mary Lea produced under their Producers Circle banner; also “Crimes of the Heart,” “March of the Falsettos;” the Obie Award-winning “Dylan” which starred Rue McLanahan; “La Cage Aux Folles” (six Tonys, count ‘em); Bob Fosse’s “Chicago,” (as well as the Oscar winning film), “The Will Rogers Follies,” “The Norman Conquests,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” the revival of “La Cage,” “Chita Rivera, A Dancer’s Life.”

All that lined up Awards for his stage productions: 36 Tonys, The Pulitzer Prize, 7 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 2 New York Drama Critics Awards. Plus the movies, such as “The Boys From Brazil, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” and again, “Chicago.”

Well. Michael Douglas, a cousin of Marty’s late wife Mary Lea, and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones were honorary chairs of the evening which featured music by Lonnie Youngblood and his Band. The invitation called for “Festive Attire with a Splash of Red Requested.”

Plus the stars: Harlem’s Tamara Tunie and Gregory Generet (pictured), Chita, Robert DeNiro and Grace Hightower, Lilias White (who sang), Lance Bass, Art Garfunkel, Star Jones, director Rob Marshall and John DeLuca, Marla Maples, Steve Gutenberg, Tony Danza, Clive Davis, Lesley Gore and tons of Marty’s longtime friends from all over.

More than 500 attending (you ask why they needed a museum space?). The room shimmered in copper and peach, festooned with peonies and yellow and pink roses. Three buffet stations: Japanese, Chinese and Deli with chicken pot pies, burgers and fries with a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.

Event producers Dan Gallagher and Michael Milton staged the evening for The Man, and they raised over a half million dollars for the Mary Lea John Richards Research Institute. Happy Happy Birthday Marty!

Source