Charity and the City

Guests of Saturday night’s 23rd annual Odyssey Ball found themselves mingling underneath street signs pointing them towards Broadway, and conversing over the sound of blaring sirens and taxi horns, despite the fact that they were nowhere near the streets of New York City. Instead, attendees socialized with one another across the country in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary worked together with Randy Fuhrman to produce a Manhattan-themed evening.

Rather than attempting to recreate the city’s many landmarks, Fuhrman focused his energies on evoking two iconic spots: Broadway and Central Park. In addition to bringing in Broadway-bound signs and playing audio of signature city sounds, Fuhrman littered tabletops in the silent auction area with 150 authentic playbills, as well as top hats and white gloves, and had servers dish up mini pizzas and other hors d’ oeuvres from carts resembling those used by street vendors. Guests also got a taste of the entertainment the theater district is known for during the silent auction, where a group of singers performed classic Broadway hits. (Fuhrman steered away from more modern-day productions in order to cater to the ball’s older crowd.)In a theatrical move befitting the Broadway setting, curtains separating the auction area from the dining room parted after guests had placed their final bids, revealing the hotel’s International Ballroom, which had been converted into a Central Park-inspired scene. Trees, park benches, and fountains with running water lined the perimeter of the ballroom and decorated the stage, where a Holly Golightly character strolled back and forth, and even sat down on the bench to read the paper.

But not all onstage talent merely interacted with props. Fuhrman had a singer alter the final verse of John Lennon’s “Imagine” to “Imagine there’s no cancer,” reminding guests of the organization’s cause. Former Broadway performer Roslyn Kind sang a series of show tunes including Chicago’s “All that Jazz” before guests wrapped up the evening by hitting the dance floor.