Lincoln Center benefits and hard hats may sound like an unlikely combination, but at the cultural center’s April 30 “Good Night, Alice” event—a fund-raising sendoff for Alice Tully Hall, which is now undergoing an 18-month renovation—the night’s omnipresent theme of construction made it happen. The evening’s program included a concert by Laurie Anderson, Wynton Marsalis, and others at Alice Tully Hall, as well as dinner and dancing in a tent in Damrosch Park and a fireworks display.Artful and fun interpretations of the building motif abounded, including flasks filled with dirty martinis and cosmopolitans at cocktail hour, personalized hard hats acting as placeholders, an appetizer course served in a silver lunch box (filled with elements that guests could use to build their own dish), and a replica of a crane with a piano suspended from it anchoring the tent-covered dinner space.
A barbecue-themed buffet dinner, served from a silver mobile food station similar to those found at construction sites, continued the night’s casual theme. Guests sampled dishes including carved cowboy steaks, Kobe-beef hot dogs, and spicy corn bread triangles on blue tin plates.
As a parting gift, the more than 700 attendees took home Lincoln Center tote bags carrying their hard hats and lunch boxes, along with a Thermos and a cookie imprinted with a rendering of the renovated Alice Tully Hall. The evening was Lincoln Center’s most successful event ever, raising more than $5 million toward the center’s $900 million redevelopment plan, which includes not only the Alice Tully Hall renovation but also changes to the Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater and elsewhere.
—Jane L. Levere
Photos: Courtesy of Stephanie Berger (performance), Philip Greenberg (all others)
A barbecue-themed buffet dinner, served from a silver mobile food station similar to those found at construction sites, continued the night’s casual theme. Guests sampled dishes including carved cowboy steaks, Kobe-beef hot dogs, and spicy corn bread triangles on blue tin plates.
As a parting gift, the more than 700 attendees took home Lincoln Center tote bags carrying their hard hats and lunch boxes, along with a Thermos and a cookie imprinted with a rendering of the renovated Alice Tully Hall. The evening was Lincoln Center’s most successful event ever, raising more than $5 million toward the center’s $900 million redevelopment plan, which includes not only the Alice Tully Hall renovation but also changes to the Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater and elsewhere.
—Jane L. Levere
Photos: Courtesy of Stephanie Berger (performance), Philip Greenberg (all others)
Photo: Philip Greenberg