"American Idol" Taylor Hicks dazzles the audience at the 2006 Cabaret benefit.
On the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 25, more than 1,000 friends and supporters filled the ballroom of the New York Marriott Marquis for Cabaret 2006. The enormously successful event was emceed by Joy Behar, a co-host of the popular ABC talk show "The View" and raised more than $2.4 million for Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Co-chairs for the event were Serena Boardman, Charlotte Ford, Collette Kean, Heather and Steven Mnuchin, Lisa and Richard Perry, and Bruce Ratner and Pamela Lipkin, M.D.; Journal co-chairs were Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D., and Douglas McIntyre.
Winners of the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell talent contest (from left) Toral Shah, Billy Steeves and Heather Moran. Photo by Brad Hess.
The star-studded evening had an "American Idol" theme, featuring recent "Idol" winner Taylor Hicks and his band, as well as three winners of a NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell employee talent contest judged by noted orchestra leader Peter Duchin and Mary Rodgers Guettel, daughter of famed Broadway composer Richard Rodgers and mother of Adam Guettel, a 2005 Tony Award winner for best score for "The Light in the Piazza."
The employee winners who performed were Heather Moran, program assistant in the Tri-Institutional Training Program; Toral Shah, a physician's assistant at the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health; and Billy Steeves, a registered nurse in oncology. The winners shared the bill with Taylor Hicks as well as Peter Duchin and his orchestra, who provided music for dancing late into the night.
On the next morning's national broadcast of "The View," Ms. Behar commented on her emcee duties the previous evening: "Weill Cornell Medical Center is an amazing place," she said. "We raised a lot of money that will help a lot of people. It was a great night."
Cabaret Journal co-chairs Dr. Patricia Yarberry Allen and Douglas McIntyre.
Dr. and Mrs. Gotto with Heather Moran, a winner of the employee talent contest, and Dr. Scott Blanchard.
From left: Dr. Michael Stewart, chairman of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology; Mrs. Anita Gotto; Peter Meinig, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees; and Dr. Antonio Gotto, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College.
Photos by Marie Wallace.