SPEAKER: TED CHAPIN | ENTERTAINER: KURT PETERSON (Original Cast of Follies)

$52 admission includes a three-course lunch payable at the door by cash or check only

In 1971, college student TED CHAPIN found himself front row center as a production assistant at the creation of one of the greatest Broadway musicals, FOLLIES. Needing college credit to graduate on time, he kept a journal of everything he saw and heard and thus was able to document in unprecedented detail how a musical is actually created. Now, more than thirty years later, he has fashioned an extraordinary chronicle. Follies was created by Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, and James Goldman – giants in the evolution of the Broadway musical and geniuses at the top of their game. EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride, from the uncertainties of casting to drama-filled rehearsals, from the care and feeding of one-time movie and television stars to the pressures of a Boston tryout to the exhilaration of opening night on Broadway. Foreword by long-time NY critic Frank Rich.

KURT PETERSON began his Broadway career when Leonard Bernstein and Richard Rodgers chose him to play Tony in the revival of West Side Story at Lincoln Center. He then starred opposite Angela Lansbury in Dear World and created the role of Young Ben in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. Off-Broadway, Kurt starred in Dames at Sea, By Bernstein, and Alias Jimmy Valentine, and appeared in the Town Hall productions of Knickerbocker Holiday, Music in the Air and I Married an Angel. Kurt sang “Proud Lady” to Patti LuPone when he starred opposite her in the Broadway-bound The Baker’s Wife. He also starred in the highly acclaimed Canadian premiere of Company and Rob Marshall’s production of Side By Side By Sondheim. Kurt was featured in the 75th birthday celebrations “Wall to Wall Sondheim” and “Children & Art” honoring Stephen Sondheim and has performed as a leading man in many productions and concerts around the country and in Europe. Kurt's most recent New York stage appearances were with his long time co-star Victoria Mallory in When Everything Was Possible, their acclaimed "Concert (with comments)" which debuted at New York's City Center on April 29, 2012, in his memoir concert Proud Ladies at Merkin Hall in 2022, and at Carnegie Hall in the Transport Group's 2024 star-studded concert of Follies. Kurt is the owner of New York City’s The Voice Studio, home to many of Broadway’s greatest teachers and performers. www.jameswilliamproductions.com