Danny DeVito, who most recently starred in Roundabout’s I Need That by Theresa Rebeck and made his Broadway debut in Roundabout’s The Price by Arthur Miller, will be honored for his contribution to the theater with The Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre, named after the late Jason Robards for his longstanding relationship with Roundabout and memorable body of stage work. The award is given to those who have made an indelible impact on both theatre and Roundabout.  All tickets and tables include a seat for dinner, live auction, and Mr. Groban’s performance.

‘I NEED THAT’: Danny DeVito in the acclaimed 2023 Broadway production. Photo: Joan Marcus.

Proceeds benefit Roundabout programs

All proceeds benefit Roundabout’s many programs, including Education at Roundabout, which offers nationally recognized programs that use the stimulating power of the arts to inspire, engage, and promote social equity.

The Gala is presented by The Mustang Foundation. The Official Auto Sponsor of the Gala is Tri-State Cadillac.

‘NATASHA AND PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812’: Josh Groban in the 2016 Broadway production. Photo: Chad Batka.

The evening is chaired by Samantha Rudin Earls and David Earls, Jeanne and Tom Hagerty, Fran and Paul Turner, and Johannes and Regis Worsoe.  Vice Chairs are Bank of America, Cynthia and Ron Beck, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Roxanne and Scott Bok, Karen McKeel Calby, Michael T. Cohen, Colliers International NY LLC, John and Colleen Cook, Sylvia Golden, Tom and Kitty Patterson Kempner, Stephanie and Ron Kramer, Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence and Dr. Ryan P. Shelhamer, Alan P. Mark and Jeffrey Fraenkel, Janet and Marvin Rosen, Jennifer and Owen Thomas, & Diane and Tom Tuft.

The Gala Auction is chaired by Wendy Barker and Colleen Cook and Auction Committee includes Regaye Fulcher, Nancy Lee Molesworth, and JT Tsou. The Education Paddle Raise is sponsored by Capital One. The Gala performance is underwritten by Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence and Dr. Ryan P. Shelhamer.

Ticket information

Gala Tickets range from $2,500 – $10,000 and include seating for the dinner and performance, and an invitation to the private cocktail party with Roundabout artists starting at $3,500. Gala Tables start at $25,000 and include a table of ten for dinner and the performance.

To purchase tickets or a table to Roundabout’s 2025 Gala, contact: events@roundabouttheatre.org

For more information: https://gala.roundabouttheatre.org

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays and musicals on its five stages: Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre, Studio 54 and Stephen Sondheim Theatre, and Off-Broadway’s Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre.

Roundabout Theatre Company has been working to prioritize and actively incorporate anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion and accountability throughout the institution. Read more about the company’s social justice progress and timeline at edi.roundabouttheatre.org.

Roundabout productions are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Roundabout’s 2024-2025 season includes English by Sanaz Toossi, directed by Knud Adams; Liberation by Bess Wohl, directed by Whitney White; and The Pirates of Penzance by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, adapted by Rupert Holmes, music direction by Joseph Joubert, choreographed by Warren Carlyle and directed by Scott Ellis.

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Biographies

JOSH GROBAN.  Tony®, EMMY®, and five-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated singer, songwriter, actor, and philanthropist Josh Groban possesses one of the most outstanding and instantly recognizable voices in music. Moreover, he continues to captivate fans everywhere as both a powerhouse vocalist and dynamic renaissance man. He has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, headlined legendary venues all over the world, and has also entertained audiences with acclaimed film and television appearances. In 2016, he made his Tony-nominated Broadway debut as Pierre in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1912, and in the Spring of 2023, Josh took to Broadway once again, performing in the highly anticipated revival of Sweeney Todd, playing the title role which earned him Tony and GRAMMY Nominations along with widespread acclaim.

Danny DeVito’s career

Danny DeVito. Photo: Daniel Bergeron.

DANNY DEVITO is one of the entertainment industry’s most versatile players, excelling as actor, producer and director.  The award-winning performance as Louie De Palma on the television show “Taxi” was what propelled DeVito to national prominence. He won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe. In a 1999 readers’ poll conducted by TV Guide, DeVito’s Louie De Palma was voted number one among “TV’s Fifty Greatest Character’s Ever.” 

Thus far, 2024 has seen DeVito reunite with friend and former co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Super Bowl commercial for State Farm, and again on stage presenting together at the 96th Academy Awards. In March he narrated his role in the beloved 1996 classic “Matilda,” with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra performing the music live, while the film played on screen. He had a cameo appearance in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which released in theaters September 2024. He served as an executive producer on Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming docuseries Game 7 with his children Jake and Lucy, which Premieres October 22.

DeVito returned to Broadway in Fall-Winter of 2023 in a brand-new play called “I Need That,” at the Roundabout Theatre. Written by Theresa Rebeck, he acted alongside his daughter Lucy, who made her Broadway debut. The actor previously made his Broadway debut in 2017 in Arthur Miller’s “The Price” in the role of Gregory Solomon. Mr. DeVito earned his first Tony Award nomination.  The legend also won a Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for the role.

Recent & current projects

He was the voice Uncle Dan in the warmly received 2024 Universal family film “Migration.” On television, he returns as “Frank Reynolds” in the 17^th season of FXX’s acclaimed cult comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” The show was renewed in 2020 for seasons 15-18. The hit became the longest-running scripted comedy in television history.  Other recent TV appearances include Mel Brooks’ “History of the World: Part II.  He did a guest role in the first season of Netflix’ “The Kominsky Method.”

DeVito is the principal of Jersey Film’s 2nd Avenue, a successor company of Jersey Films. In film, they most recently optioned the screen rights to Tom’s River: A Story of Science and Salvation, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Dan Fagin.  The first season of their animated comedy “Little Demon,” was picked up by FXX in 2022, including characters voiced by DeVito, daughter and actor Lucy DeVito, and Aubrey Plaza, with Dan Harmon executive producing.

DeVito’s other recent VO work includes the character Bob for Walt Disney Pictures’ “The One and Only Ivan,” released in 2020. In 2018, he was heard voicing Dorgle in Warner Bros.’ animated feature “Smallfoot.”  Other voiced characters include the Lorax in Universal Pictures’ animated feature “The Lorax,” based on the book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. His voice was also heard in the German, Russian, Spanish and Italian versions of the film.

Other projects

He was in Sony Classics’ 2016 film “The Comedian,” with Robert De Niro and Leslie Mann, directed by Taylor Hackford.  DeVito directed, starred in and co-produced short film “Curmudgeons.” It premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and was later seen at the 2016 Seattle Film Festival and 2016 London Film Festival. The same year, DeVito also co-starred in the Todd Solondz’ dark comedy “Wiener-Dog.”

 DeVito and Richard Griffiths received rave reviews in the 2012 London stage revival of Neil Simon’s comedy “The Sunshine Boys.”  The following year, DeVito reprised his critically acclaimed role together with former “Taxi” co-star Judd Hirsch in Los Angeles.

 In 2015, DeVito was executive producer on the biographical documentary “Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story.” He co-produced Universal Pictures’ crime drama “A Walk Among the Tombstones” and starred in “All The Wilderness in 2014. DeVito starred in Sebastian Gutierrez’s black and white crime drama, “Hotel Noir” in 2012.

Actor also a prolific director

 Throughout his career, DeVito has directed more than 25 projects. These include “Matilda,” “Death To Smoochy,” “The War of the Roses,” “Hoffa,” “Throw Momma From the Train,” “The Ratings Game.” He was in short films, TV movies and episodes of television, including “Taxi.”

Jersey Films  produced over 20 motion pictures. Films include “Freedom Writers,” “Be Cool,” “Garden State,” “Along Came Polly,” “Man on the Moon.” In addition, “Pulp Fiction,” “Out of Sight,” “Get Shorty,” “Hoffa,” “Matilda,” “Living Out Loud.” “Erin Brockovich” received an Academy Award nomination).

Apart from his work with Jersey Films, DeVito has starred in such films as “The War of the Roses,” “Junior,” “Batman Returns,” “Twins,” “Romancing the Stone,” “Jewel of the Nile,” “Ruthless People,” “Throw Momma From the Train,” “Tin Men,” “Anything Else,” “Big Fish,” “Renaissance Man,” “The Big Kahuna” and “Heist.”  He also starred in “The Good Night,” “Deck The Halls,” “Relative Strangers,” “The OH in Ohio,” “Be Cool” and “Even Money.”

DeVito’s early days

DeVito attended Our Lady of Mt. Carmel grammar school and Oratory Prep School in Summit, N.J. He appeared in only one school play, as St. Francis of Assisi.  After graduation, he pursued several odd jobs, always with the idea of acting in the back of his mind. He finally entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. “They had fencing and a speech class,” he said mockingly, “So you don’t talk funny.”

Unable to get work, Danny bought a round-trip ticket and headed to Hollywood.  After years of unemployment, he returned to New York.  He called an old friend and former American Academy professor who, coincidentally, had been seeking him out for a starring role in one of three one-act plays presented together under the title of “The Man With the Flower in His Mouth.” In no time, Danny was into big money ($60 a week), and other stage performances followed.  Among his credits were “Down the Morning Line” and The Line of Least Existence.” He also appeared in “The Shrinking Bride” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Under a grant from the American Film Institute, Danny and his wife, actress Rhea Perlman, wrote and produced “Minestrone” (1975). “Minestrone” was shown twice at the Cannes Film Festival and translated into five languages.  Later, they wrote and produced a 16-millimeter black-and-white short subject, “The Sound Sleeper,” which won first prize at the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association competition.

Honored in NJ hometown

The mayor of Asbury Park, NJ declared November 17, 2018  (DeVito’s birthday) as Danny DeVito day in Asbury Park. The actor grew up there.

DeVito carries his success well.  Never forgetting that there were more difficult times, he maintains a healthy sense of perspective.  As “Taxi” character Louie DePalma, would say, “If you don’t do good today, you’ll be eatin’ dirt tomorrow.”

The post Josh Groban to perform at Roundabout 2025 Gala honoring Danny DeVito appeared first on StageZine.

‘I NEED THAT’: Danny DeVito. Photo: Joan Marcus.

I NEED THAT
Written by Theresa Rebeck
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Through December 30, 2023
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd Street
(212-719-1300), www.RoundaboutTheatre.org

By David NouNou

What is there to be said about a hoarder? We’re all guilty of it in one form or another. Hoarding is a universal condition which most people suffer from, but can it sustain a play for 100 minutes? The answer to that would be a resounding no, but what sustains I Need That is Danny DeVito’s Sam, the hoarder.

Sam is a widower living alone. His home (amply hoarded by set designer Alexander Dodge), is uninhabitable; as a matter of fact, his neighbor from across the street as taken pictures of the inside the house and reported him to the police as a hazardous place that can be a fire trap. He has gotten a few eviction notices to make his place habitable but he has ignored them. His mementos go back as far as 60 odd years and includes books that his late wife used to read, board games he played with his daughter, a 60-year-old TV set that was built by his father, and all sorts of items that only have importance to a hoarder.

Sam has not stepped outside his home in years. His contact to the outside world is Foster (Ray Anthony Thomas) who is his best friend, and who steals from him. Sam tells Foster about the items he has collected over the years: a ring, bonds, and magazines which Foster then steals, then pawns, cashes in and/or sells on eBay behind Sam’s back and keeps the proceeds.

The other contact in Sam’s life is his daughter, Amelia (Lucy DeVito). She devotes her life to trying to protect her father from bringing him food to trying to fend off the law from evicting him. Both Foster and Amelia try their best to help Sam unload, but he argues back that he is organizing.

To tell you more would be revealing the outcome which is unfair to a theatergoer. Suffice it to say there is a lot of extemporaneous filler halfway into the play, and the play goes off into tangents. There is even a mention of the TV show “Hoarders.” While most hoarders may be crotchety and unlikable, Sam is crotchety but lovable.  After all, he is Louie De Palma from “Taxi” in the form of Danny DeVito.

Having seen Mr. DeVito in the 2017 Roundabout revival of Arthur Miller’s The Price (in which he was robbed of a much-deserved Tony Award), Mr. DeVito is a consummate stage actor. He is as comfortable on the stage as he is on any TV set. He is the oxygen that pumps into the veins of this lackluster play. What also adds dimension to the performance is that he is performing opposite his daughter, Lucy. There is a beautiful care and chemistry between them that comes across as only a real father and daughter possess. They enhance each other’s performances.

Ray Anthony Thomas gives a sincere performance as a caring friend but is also guilt-ridden from his constant stealing. His apology scene to Sam is very touching.

Ms. Rebeck is a good and prolific playwright. She always has a grand idea, but in a lot of cases she can’t flesh them out properly. Think of Dead Accounts, Seminar and Bernhardt/Hamlet (also at the Roundabout), to name a few. Her two best plays are Mauritius, and Mad House, the play I saw in London last year at the Ambassador Theatre with David Harbour and Bill Pullman, also directed by Mr. von Stuelpnagel. I am truly stunned that Mad House has not made it to Broadway yet. With a little tweaking and editing by Mr. Von Stuelpnagel, it can be a terrific play on Broadway.

The positivity here is that both Ms. Rebeck and director Moritz von Stuelpnagel work together well and both have their own quirky, edgy chemistry together. Mr. von Stuelpnagel has the capacity to flesh out and edit scenes in Ms. Rebeck’s play to give them a smoother polish and finish.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 8, 2023
Reviewed at November 7, 2023 press performance.

‘I NEED THAT’: Ray Anthony Thomas, Lucy DeVito & Danny DeVito. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘I NEED THAT’: Lucy DeVito & Danny DeVito. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘I NEED THAT’: Danny DeVito. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘I NEED THAT’: (left to right) Ray Anthony Thomas, Danny DeVito & Lucy DeVito. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘I NEED THAT’: Ray Anthony Thomas, Danny DeVito & Lucy DeVito. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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‘THE PRICE’: (left to right) Tony Shalhoub, Mark Ruffalo & Jessica Hecht. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE PRICE
Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Terry Kinney
Through May 7, 2017
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd Street
(212-719-1300), www.RoundaboutTheatre.org

By David NouNou

Death Of A Salesman, The Crucible and A View From the Bridge are Arthur Miller’s most enduring plays, and every few years, a director comes along and shines a new perspective on them; lately it’s been done by European directors that push the envelope to the point that they are hardly recognized as Miller plays. Thank goodness The Price is not one of them; it is so rarely done that when a good production is mounted, you welcome it with open arms. I was too young to appreciate the original 1968 version; the 2000 version was abysmal; and now finally a version has arrived at just the right time, with its values intact.

The Price centers around two brothers that have each taken a different path growing up. Victor Franz (Mark Ruffalo) stayed to take care of his bankrupt father after the death of his mother and gave up school and science to become a policeman. Walter Franz (Tony Shalhoub) decided to leave his father and pursue his schooling and became a very wealthy doctor. They have been estranged for 28 years without even a call. Now that their father is dead and the building they lived in is being demolished, all the furniture that was stored in the attic has to be sold, and the appraiser, Gregory Solomon (Danny DeVito), has come to buy it all. This brings us to the price for the furniture, the price that each brother has paid to be who they are, and the price Solomon has paid to live as long as he has. The fourth character is Esther Franz (Jessica Hecht), wife of Victor, who has always envied people with a better life than she’s had and after nearly 30 years of marriage, still wants a better life.

What makes The Price relevant today is that it’s a seesaw play, one’s allegiance shifts from brother to brother on a moment-to-moment basis. What two brothers haven’t shared in guilt and recrimination with moving on or staying behind? In 1968, in gentler times, the arguments were clearer cut. Today, with harsher and more cynical realities, the lines are blurred and each one presents his case but ultimately there are no winners, for what is done is done and you can’t change the past. Seen by this perspective, The Price is profoundly relevant today.

Like the best of wines, Tony Shalhoub just keeps getting better with age. He is a consummate actor with a command that rivets your whole attention to his performance. When he is onstage, the play is electric; but he doesn’t come on until the end of Act I. However, in Act I you have Danny DeVito; finally coming to Broadway in a role tailor made for him. Thank God for his arrival early on to lift the tedium that is known as the exposition or set up of the play. You can say he is the wise Jewish grandfather of his previous role of Louis De Palma from TV’s “Taxi.” What a joy to have him on stage supplying the lighter moments.

In the drab and thankless roles of Victor and Esther Franz, Mark Ruffalo and Jessica Hecht make a valiant attempt to bring life to their characters. Mr. Ruffalo was a last-minute replacement for John Turturro; his real shining moment is the confrontation scene with Mr. Shalhoub. In those tense moments, you can really feel the pent-up rage between these two brothers who can never reconcile with each other.

For theatergoers who enjoy depth and content in their shows, I suggest you rush to the American Airlines Theatre because this production is only around until May 7, 2017.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 22, 2017
Reviewed at press performance on March 21, 2017

‘THE PRICE’: Mark Ruffalo & Tony Shalhoub. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE PRICE’: Mark Ruffalo & Jessica Hecht. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE PRICE’: Mark Ruffalo & Danny DeVito. Photo: Joan Marcus

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