The Emerald City comes to DUMBO digs

You never know what's gonna happen at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. One week it's can can dancers, another it's aerialists. On weekends, they go fly kites.

March 29 brings the Great White Way in a star-studded event to raise money for the not-for-profit Brooklyn Young Mother's Collective, where you can see Ana Gasteyer sing, sans Will Ferrell.

See more after the jump.



The Emerald City comes to DUMBO digs

By Meredith Deliso

(Published in the 3.26 issue of 24/Seven)

Broadway comes to Brooklyn this month when DUMBO’s Galapagos Art Space hosts Broadway Under the Bridge, a benefit for the Brooklyn Young Mothers’ Collective, a not-for-profit provides low-income young mothers with the tools to develop leadership skills and the encouragement to develop a plan to finish school education and obtain self-sufficiency.

Headlining the March 29 event are Ana Gasteyer of “Saturday Night Live” fame and Broadway blonde Kate Reinders, who will be reunited after starring in the Chicago run of Wicked as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, in 2006.

Also joining the two are other stars from the Great White Way, including Sarah Litzsinger (“Beauty and the Beast”), Megan McGinnis (“Little Women”), Cathy Trien (“Gypsy”), Christopher Sloan (“Cabaret”) and Jessica-Snow Wilson (“Spelling Bee”).

The cabaret-style benefit will feature the performers in Broadway songs of friendship, family and support, as all of the performers have previously worked with Reinders on Broadway or off.
Before the show, Reinders, along with New York City-based artist Robert S. Greenberg, will be at a wine and cheese reception for Greenberg’s “Frog Skins,” an exhibition of transparent layers of acrylic paint and gold leaf depicting the translucent skins of endangered tropical tree frogs. Greenberg’s work is steeped in the significance of geography as he attempts to educate viewers on his subject matter, and this exhibition is no exception. The subject of tree frogs also makes for a vivid, colorful one.

When the stars take to the stage for the main event, guests are also invited to purchase VIP private seating in one of Galapagos’s “pods,” individual sections of seating that are separated by the venue’s reflecting pool of water, for 10 people at $1,000. Otherwise, tickets are $75 for the performance and $125 for the performance and reception.

“Galapagos is a really intimate setting,” says C.J. Masimore, a lawyer on the board of the Brooklyn Young Mothers’ Collective (BYMC) who has been friends with Reiner since junior high and worked on planning the benefit with her. “Some [of the performers] will be mingling with the audience during the show, so it will be a fun, interactive event.”

Though DUMBO isn’t exactly the Theater District, the Broadway event is very much Brooklyn, with both Masimore and Gasteyer calling the borough home, and the BYMC, as the name suggests, located here in Park Slope.

“It was fun to make it that theme,” says Masimore. “It was great to be able to bring it to Brooklyn.”

The Broadway Under the Bridge Benefit will be March 29 at Galapagos Art Space (16 Main St.), wthi a reception at 7 p.m. and the performance starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $75 for the performance only, with reception/performance tickets available for $125 and VIP 10-person s event seating is available for $1,000. The night will also feature a raffle. For more information, and to purchase tickets, go to www.galapagosartspace.com and nycharities.org. For more on the Brooklyn Young Mothers’ Collective, go to www.bymcinc.org.