Who would've thought that Miller Outdoor Theatre could make for a charming, intimate supper club?
It did just that Saturday night when Cathy Campbell Brock and Rodney Nathan chaired "From This Moment on . . . An Intimate Evening Onstage With Billy Stritch." The open-air stage was wrapped in black pipe and drape blocking the theater seating and hillside overlook, thereby creating a cozy space on stage for the 150 cocktail-attired guests.
A native of Sugar Land, Billy Stritch has lived for 19 years in New York, where he has frequently partnered with Liza Minnelli. They just returned from a three-week tour of Australia. Before his supper club-style performance, Stritch allowed that he and Minnelli will be in the Sex and the City 2 performing Single Ladies.
The evening honored Sidney Berger, founder and producing director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival, a 36-year tradition at Miller. He is also co-founder and producer of the Children's Theatre Festival, for which Stritch served as musical director for a number of shows.
Sitting down to dinner from Melange Catering were notables including Dr. Gary Brock, Jeanie Kilroy and Ed Becnel, Margaret Williams and Jim Daniel, Diane Lokey Farb, Rep. Ellen Cohen, Gracie and Bob Cavnar, Amanda and Robert Brock, and Lynne Campbell Bonham and Bill Bonham.
Houston theater pros were in the ranks including Theater Under the Stars founder Frank Young, Society for the Performing Arts CEO June Christensen and retired SPA director Toby Mattox.
And, of course, Miller Outdoor Theatre managing director Cissy Segall Davis was there to serve as emcee.
Co-chairs Rodney Nathan, from left, and Cathy Campbell Brock, with honoree Sidney Berger and Billy Stritch, seated at the piano, at the Miller Outdoor Theatre Gala
