MEDIA RELEASE
Star-studded gala slated for September 23
features Martin Short, Paul Shaffer and Victor Garber
September 10, 2019… Award-winning actor-singer-comedian
Andrea Martin is being celebrated by the Stratford Festival as
the 2019 Legacy Award recipient, at a gala to be held on September 23 at
Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Andrea’s for decades,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “Her work on SCTV had me in stitches, so when I saw her live in
Candide here at the Stratford Festival, I was ready to worship at
her altar, and this goddess didn’t disappoint. Her vitality and
enormous talent have made her an icon. It is a great pleasure to say
thank you and celebrate her and her intersection with
Stratford.”
Martin has hundreds of stage,
television and film credits, including a spectacular season at the
Stratford Festival in 1978, when she played Sibyl Chase in Noël Coward’s
Private Lives, with Brian Bedford as Elyot Chase, Nicholas Pennell as Victor Prynne and
Maggie Smith (the 2012 Legacy Award winner) as Amanda Prynne.
That same season Martin also played the Old Lady in the musical
Candide, a role she reprised on Broadway in 1997, earning one of a
record-breaking five Tony nominations for Best Featured Actress in a
Musical. She won for
Pippin in 2013 and My Favorite Year in 1993. She earned a sixth Tony nomination, for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for 2016’s
Noises Off.
“How fortunate am I to be honoured
twice by the Stratford Festival?” Martin says. “I was first honoured, in
1978, to be part of Stratford’s acting company. I was cast alongside
Dame Maggie Smith and Brian Bedford in
Private Lives, directed by Robin Phillips. And on alternate
nights I pranced around the stage as the Old Lady with half a butt in
the Leonard Bernstein operetta
Candide. If 1978 was the cake, 2019 is the icing. Thank you Stratford for this glorious award.”
In Canada and beyond, Martin is beloved for her many roles in the iconic sketch comedy series
SCTV, particularly that of leopard-print-wearing Edith Prickley,
the station manager. She was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding
Supporting Actress for the series in 1982 and, along with the rest of
the writing team, was nominated for nine additional
Emmys during the show’s run, winning two.
Born in Portland, Maine, Martin
moved to Canada in 1970 and immediately found work in film, TV and
theatre. In 1972 she was cast as Robin in a Toronto production of the
musical
Godspell, with Gilda Radner and Eugene Levy, as well as Martin Short,
Victor Garber and musical director Paul Shaffer, all three of whom with be paying tribute to Martin at the Legacy Gala, along with Festival company member
Dan Chameroy.
On screen, aside from her work on SCTV, Martin has appeared in recurring roles in such series as
Roxie, The Martin Short Show, Damon, George and Martha,
Working the Engels, and, most recently, as Marilyn Kessler on Hulu’s Difficult People, as Carol Wendelson on NBC’s
Great News, and as Francesca Lovatelli on CBS’s The Good Fight. Her many film credits include
Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Producers, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, and the role of Aunt Voula in
My Big Fat Greek Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.
Martin made her Broadway debut in My Favorite Year,
playing the role of Alice Miller, a show-stealing performance that
earned her her first Tony Award, as well as a Drama Desk Award and a
Theatre World Award. Her other Broadway
credits include Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, Golde in Fiddler on the Roof, Frau Blucher in the Mel Brooks musical comedy
Young Frankenstein, Juliette in Exit the King, Berthe in Pippin and Dotty Otley in
Noises Off.
The Stratford Festival launched its Legacy Award to honour important figures from its history. The first award was presented
Christopher Plummer in 2011. Since then it has gone to Dame Maggie Smith,
William Shatner, Martha Henry, Colm Feore, Eric McCormack,
Gordon Pinsent and Megan Follows.
The Legacy Gala is co-chaired by Barry Avrich and
Wendy Pitblado.
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Stratford Festival
PO Box 520
| Stratford ON | N5A 6V2
Box Office: Toll Free 1.800.567.1600
| Local 519.273.1600
2019 Season
|
April to November
Othello
| Billy Elliot the Musical
| The Merry Wives of Windsor | The Front Page
Private Lives | Little Shop of Horrors | The Neverending Story | The Crucible
Henry VIII | Mother’s Daughter | Nathan the Wise | Birds of a Kind
Private Lives | Little Shop of Horrors | The Neverending Story | The Crucible
Henry VIII | Mother’s Daughter | Nathan the Wise | Birds of a Kind
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