MCC's Miscast 2011

By Benjamin Nockles, Broadway Magazine

The MCC's annual Miscast Gala raised money and celebrated 25 years of one of off-Broadway's most well renowned stages in New York City on March 15, 2011. Including a dinner and silent auction, the night's big event was when Broadway's hottest stars took the stage playing roles they would never find themselves cast in. Andy Cohen, President of Original Programming and Development at Bravo said,

"It's a great idea for a charity event, it's different than everything else out there, you know it's people performing songs that they never in their right mind would have been cast for, and it's just fun to watch."

With Pulitzer Prize winning writers, Tony award winning directors, and Oscar winning actors lining up to perform at the MCC Theater, this theater and event is truly one of a kind. Saturday Night Live comedian and theater actress Ana Gasteyer is an enthusiastic supporter of the theater and the Miscast Gala, "It's an organization that really supports new work and supports new artists and celebrates the downtown spirit of theater in its truest form." American Idiot's Justin Guarini performed Barbara Streisand's Don't Rain on My Parade, where he gushed that, "It's gonna be really fun, and you know this is probably the only place I'll ever get to perform it, so I'm pretty excited." Justin, one of this years American Idol finalists, was over the moon to be at the evenings event, "I'm excited for tonight, to be able to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a great organization is wonderful, you know its just one of the cool things I've gotten to do this year, in my life!".

As the MCC Theater attracts new young artists, it has also been able to bring some of the more experienced artists back to performing on stage. Ugly Betty's Judith Light was on hand to help celebrate and share her own experiences with returning to the stage, "MCC was the theater company that brought me back into the theater after 22 years." While a younger generation of theater artists are able to benefit from the wealth of talent bursting onto the MCC stage. At 15 years of age, Kelsey Fowler, who has already performed in 3 Broadway productions in the last 4 years, was also excited about the opportunity to attend the event, "MCC is just an opportunity for actors to get together and do a dream role that they could never do [...] and to raise money for wonderful organizations and [...] to just be together and have fun on stage." Tony nominated actress Kathleen Chalfant summed up the event by saying, "What MCC is about is both the quality of the work, which is always very very high, and the willingness to take chances." Hopefully with events such as the Miscast Gala, theatergoers and artists will be able to help support the burgeoning talent on New York's off-Broadway stages for years to come.