Odds & Ends: Drink Hot Chocolate With Audra McDonald, Nederlanders Make Money Out of Thin Air & More

Here's a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today.

Drink Hot Chocolate With Audra
Ready to win some “Audrafied” prizes? Of course you are! Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald is offering personalized Tweets, signed CDs, singing telegrams, video messages and even a chance to join her for hot chocolate at legendary Main Stem hotspot Sardi’s to those who help her Broadway Sleep Out fundraising campaign. It’s all in aid of Covenant House, which helps young people find a way off the streets and into a hopeful future. Check out McDonald’s fundraising page here. Mama Broadway will next tread the boards opposite her hubby, Will Swenson, in A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Williamstown Theatre Festival beginning August 5.

Nederlanders Make Money Out of Thin Air
Broadway bigwigs the Nederlanders have just sold the air rights (the rights to control a space above a property) on top of the Neil Simon Theatre to the consortium behind a Dream Hotel project. According to Deadline, the Nederlander Organization, the second biggest theater landlords on the Great White Way, will pocket a cool $8.9 million for the deal. The Neil Simon recently played host to the Vanessa Hudgens-led Gigi and its next production is currently set to be a holiday engagement of The Illusionists.

Barbara Cook Will Release Autobiography
Broadway vet Barbara Cook, who won a Tony for The Music Man and who also starred in the original Broadway productions of Plain and Fancy, She Loves Me and Candide, has penned a memoir! It is expected to discuss her struggles with alcoholism and depression in the 1970s and her return to the boards in concert and on the Great White Way. Cook was last seen on the Main Stem in 2010 in Sondheim on Sondheim, garnering a Tony nod for her performance. The as yet untitled tome, which she's written with New York Times theater reviewer Charles Isherwood, will be released by Harper Collins on May 3, 2016.

Drama League Awards Sets Date
The 2015-16 Broadway season has barely begun but we’re already saving dates for next year’s awards season! The 82nd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony will be held on May 20, 2016 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square. The awards eligibility period for Broadway and off-Broadway productions will end April 17, and the nominations will be revealed on April 19. First awarded in 1922, the Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in America and include the prestigious Distinguished Performer Award, which recipients can only receive once during his or her career. The Visit headliner Chita Rivera received this year's trophy, one of 47 nominees for the top honor.