Jane Krakowski and Friends Help Bring Broadway Back at Roundabout Gala

After more than a year of darkness, Tony winner Jane Krakowski brought musical theater back to New York on Monday night, headlining Roundabout Theater’s 2021 Gala: “Curtain Up, Light the Lights!” With the help of The New York Pops and old friends like 30 Rock creator Tina Fey, Tony nominee Adrienne Warren, and her inimitable Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt costar Tituss Burgess, Krakowski’s message was clear: Broadway’s coming back. 

Before Krakowski took the stage, a bevy of virtual guests and former Roundabout Theater alums welcomed patrons and supporters of the illustrious theater company to Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, where the gala took place. After a welcome video from Emma Stone—who starred as Sally Bowles in Roundabout’s 2014 production of Cabaret—and in-person remarks from Roundabout’s artistic director and CEO Todd Haimes, famous faces including Rachel Brosnahan, Blair Underwood, and Whoopi Goldberg appeared onscreen to impress upon the audience of potential donors the importance of live theater. Senator Chuck Schumer, who appeared virtually, was honored for his work of cosponsoring the Save Our Stages Act, and Harry Connick Jr. sent in a video of himself performing “Hey There” and “Hernando’s Hideaway” from The Pajama Game, which he starred in at Roundabout in 2008.  

But video messages and performances can’t hold a candle to live performance, which Vanessa Williams more than proved when she helped host the auction portion of the gala, as tables bid tens of thousands of dollars on packages that included a meet-and-greet with Eddie Redmayne after watching him star as the Emcee in Cabaret on the West End and dinner with Debra Messing on stage after her performance of Roundabout’s Birthday Candles. As an added flourish, Williams launched into a gorgeous a cappella rendition of her classic hit “Save the Best for Last” while fanning herself off the entire time due to the 90-degree heat. For the first time all evening, a hush fell over the crowd as she sang, proving the power of live performance (and probably driving up the bidding war in the process).   

The night, however, belonged to Jane Krakowski and friends, whose hour-long performance with the N.Y. Pops was available virtually via livestream and cheekily used the hashtag #MondayInTheParkWithJane. Krakowski was introduced to an audience of roughly 300 in-person guests and 2,000 livestream viewers by her longtime friend and collaborator Tina Fey, who made a surprise guest appearance and warmed up the crowd with some theater-related humor. “All of the Evan Hansens are dating each other now, so they made the most of the downtime,” Fey quipped. She even got a dig in at disgraced theater producer Scott Rudin by way of introducing Krakowski: “Jane would never throw a baked potato at her assistant because Jane would never touch a baked potato.”

And then Krakowski took the stage. Wearing a leggy gold lamé dress, she opened the show with a dance-heavy mashup of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and “Material Girl.” Jack Donaghy himself, Alec Baldwin, who attended the event with wife Hilaria Baldwin, popped on stage during Krakowski’s opening number and served as a physical prop for her dance. After a spirited performance of “Don’t Tell Mama” from Cabaret, Krakowski launched into an updated version of “Zip” from Pal Joey, with lyrics by Hairspray’s Marc Shaiman to reflect our current times, replacing the word zip with tweet. It ended with a big, belted-out finish of, “Now, I pray you won’t cancel me.”

After the opener, in which Krakowski demanded that the audience drink every time she said the words bring Broadway back, she introduced her former costar and powerhouse vocalist, Tituss Burgess. Despite it already being interminably hot, the two turned up the heat with a rousing rendition of “Raise the Roof” from Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party. Then Burgess took the stage solo and delivered a gorgeous, effortless rendition of “People” from Funny Girl in Barbra Streisand’s original key, earning the first standing ovation of the night. 

Soon Krakowski was back with another special guest, Adrienne Warren, who’s currently a Tony nominee for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. The pair, who met during the 2016 Tony Award season when they both lost to a little juggernaut called Hamilton, belted out “I Know Him So Well” from Chess. After a funny analysis of all the bad advice packed into Peter Allen’s “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” Burgess joined Krakowski for a truly spectacular rendition of the classic duet “Happy Days Are Here Again/ Get Happy,” with Burgess gleefully taking Streisand’s harmony as Krakowski held down the Garland part; another standing ovation ensued. The show ended with Krakowski tearfully thanking the frontline workers and singing a sweet version of “I Happen to Like New York.”

In an interview with Vanity Fair after the show, Krakowski thanked her “theater family” at Roundabout for asking her to headline: “I just wanted to do a great job for the people I love so much, and the audience that are such great supporters. That was super cool.” When asked how she conceived of the evening, Krakowski said she started by calling her friends, like her “career fairy godmother” Fey, Baldwin, and Burgess, whom she said was “the first call.” “Hopefully, seeing these numbers done live with the orchestra, with Tituss, with Tina, with Alec, with Adrienne Warren on Broadway in the current season, will get people excited to come back to New York and come back to Broadway,” Krakowski said. “That was really the point.” 

In a phone call with Vanity Fair post-performance, Burgess described getting the 30 Rock/ Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt gang back together as “kismet.” (As for the internet drama surrounding the central star of Kimmy Schmidt, Ellie Kemper, Burgess told Page Six that he’s spoken to Kemper and she’s doing great.) Shockingly, Burgess said he hadn’t been singing much during the pandemic and that he “felt out of shape” coming into Monday’s performance, where he earned multiple standing ovations. Still, he’s ready to take the stage again and knows just the project for him and Krakowski to star in at Roundabout: “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” he said without hesitation. 

At the end of the evening, a few lucky patrons gathered on the edge of Central Park, buzzing about theater, relitigating the merit of past productions with passionate discourse that only theater can create. It was a crowd that included big-time producers, television execs, theater performers, and simply fans of the medium, all of whom were passionate in their theatrical opinions but open to hearing what their sparring partner had to say. At the end, someone took a selfie to commemorate the discussion—a bunch of strangers coming together who happen to like New York theater, and are eager for the return of Broadway.

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