The Studio Theatre likes to shoot for the moon and, according to its ardent supporters, usually hits it. This year’s aptly named “Moon Change” benefit was no exception Saturday night, with 400 guests streaming into the impressive four-theater complex at 14th and P streets Northwest for drinks and dinner plus a “cosmic cabaret” starring Julia Nixon.
All the moon-themed fun (including “moontini” cocktails) was spread vertically over four floors under the watchful eye of founding artistic director Joy Zinoman.
The impresario-in-chief was giddy with excitement about Studio’s current achievements — including a popular production of Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig” — and bright future.
Mrs. Zinoman said that when Mr. LaBute, a writer and director who likes to dwell on human nature’s dark side, visited last week, “he saw ’Fat Pig’ three times and really loved it. Now he’s offering me a world premiere of his next show — maybe.” Further fueling Mrs. Zinoman’s exuberance was the theater’s recent purchase of a seven-apartment building in Dupont Circle to house visiting artists and interns. “Now that we have this tremendous space and success, we need places to put the artists,” she explained.
Trustees mentioned the possibility that the theater’s real estate empire might extend to a further purchase near Logan Circle.
Interior designer and longtime board member Victor Shargai praised Studio’s role in transforming the once-seedy neighborhood. When he came aboard 23 years ago, it was “a great artistic work in the middle of a rat-infested building. … Now, look at the theater and the restaurants and the million-dollar condos. Joy believed in the community and she was right.”
The $350-a-pop gala Saturday night raised more than $350,000 toward the real estate deals, although the program didn’t dwell on such earthly matters. Guests, who included such arts benefactors as Jaylee and Gilbert Mead and Dorothy and William McSweeny, separated to dine by candlelight in five different spaces throughout the complex before dancing “under the stars” in the third-floor atrium after a performance by Miss Nixon, one of the original “Dreamgirls” on Broadway and the lead in Studio’s upcoming production of “Caroline, or Change.”
Spilling out of her strapless gold sequined gown, the diva sauntered onstage to sing stellar standards that captured the evening’s mood: “Fly Me to the Moon,” “How High the Moon,” and “Moondance.”
— Christina Ianzito
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