Tony Winner Lillias White Joins Star-Studded Cast of Pamela's First Musical

Tony Award winner Lillias White has joined an all-star cast in a benefit performance of Pamela's First Musical, adapted from the 1996 children's book by the late Wendy Wasserstein. The performance will be held at Town Hall on May 18, directed by Graciela Daniele, and will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Theatre Development Fund's Open Doors Program, which Wasserstein founded.

White earned a Tony Award for The Life. Her other Broadway credits include How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Cats, Once on This Island, Dreamgirls and Chicago. Off-Broadway, she's been seen in The Vagina Monologues, Crowns, Dinah Was, Romance in Hard Times, Waiting for Godot and Antigone Africanus. She sang the roles of Bloody Mary in South Pacific in "Great Performances Live from Carnegie Hall" and Fanny Brice in a concert production of Funny Girl at the New Amsterdam Theatre. White performs regularly with the Colorado Symphony, the Palm Beach Pops, NY Pops and in other venues worldwide including Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Pamela's First Musical, features music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel and a book by Wasserstein. White will be joined by Lynn Ahrens, Christian Borle, Carolee Carmello, Sandy Duncan, Gregg Edelman, Christine Ebersole, Stephen Flaherty, Kathie Lee Gifford, Adam Heller, Richard Kind, Robert Klein, Donna Murphy, Tommy Tune and many others. Special guests include David Garrison as Producer Bernie S. Gerry and Lila Coogan as Pamela.

This one-act musical tells the story of a young girl from the suburbs who spends an unforgettable birthday with her eccentric, sophisticated Aunt Louise Murphy attending a lavish Broadway production and meeting all the glamorous, creative people who made it possible.

The concept of staging Wasserstein's 1996 children's book began several years ago. Though Zippel had originally approached Wasserstein about making it into a television movie, they eventually began working with Coleman to turn it into a live stage show, which was essentially complete at the time of Coleman's death in 2004. It was set to premiere in 2005, but the production was eventually canceled due to Wasserstein's tragic death from lymphoma at age 55. Zippel and Daniele, who had directed two workshop productions of Pamela's First Musical, have continued working on the project over the last few years. The benefit performance at Town Hall will be the first public presentation of the show.