About The Event
When Mary Rodgers began her memoir about her life as the daughter of composer Richard Rodgers and, later, as the mother of composer Adam Guettel, she set out to be honest, unabashedly so. In her posthumously published book, Shy, which was co-authored by Jesse Green, chief theater critic of The New York Times, the reader comes to know her as a musical genius herself and the sometimes wounded daughter of a famous father and difficult mother. Her work lives on as the composer of Broadway sensation Once Upon A Mattress. She collaborated with everyone from Judy Holliday to Carol Burnett and Leonard Bernstein, along with romantic interludes with Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince. Jesse Green appears on our stage to reveal how he finished the book, why Rodgers’s life resonates with us still, and what her life can teach us. Books will be available for purchase.
About The Organizer
In 1906, when the Club outgrew its first home on 34th Street, Spencer Trask, a financier, philanthropist and NAC Governor, helped the Club acquire the historic Samuel Tilden Mansion as its new home. The Tilden Mansion occupies 14 and 15 Gramercy Park South; both houses were built in the 1840s; and the original flat-front, iron-grilled brownstones matched the style of the homes still maintained on the west side of Gramercy Park. Samuel Tilden, the 25th Governor of New York, acquired 15 Gramercy Park South in 1863, purchased the adjacent house a few years later and gave the conjoined mansions a complete redesign. Tilden hired Calvert Vaux, a famed architect and one of the designers of Central Park, to modernize the façade with sandstone, bay windows and ornamentation in the Aesthetic Movement style. John LaFarge created stained glass panels for the interior of the mansion; and sculptors from the firm of Ellin and Kitson created elaborate fireplace surrounds, bookcases and doors. Glass master Donald MacDonald fashioned a unique stained glass dome for Tilden’s library that crowns the room where the bar is now located.
In 1966 New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission declared 15 Gramercy Park South a New York City Landmark; and in 1976 the Federal government designated the building a National Historic Landmark.
Please Note
Coat check is limited. Please do not bring any large bags or backpacks.
Event Location
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