Public Theater Gala to Honor Mike Nichols and Susan Lyne

The Public Theater will honor director Mike Nichols and entertainment executive Susan Lyne at its 2009 Summer Gala to be held on June 25 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The benefit event will coincide with opening night of the Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, starring Anne Hathaway and directed by Daniel Sullivan.

Nichols, who directed the Public’s 2001 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Seagull, is the winner of nine Tony Awards over a 40-year period, most recently for directing the Broadway musical Spamalot. His film credits range from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate to Charlie Wilson’s War, and he has helmed adaptations of Angels in America and Wit for HBO. Nichols has the rare achievement of winning all four of the major awards in American show business, the Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Oscar.

Lyne, a former president of ABC Entertainment and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, is a longtime member of the Public Theater board.

The Public’s annual Gala features an outdoor buffet dinner in Central Park, followed by a performance at the Delacorte Theater and a post-show cast party at Belvedere Castle overlooking Turtle Pond and the Delacorte.