(LINCROFT, NJ) -- On Saturday November 16, 2024, the Brookdale Performing Arts Center will present "An Evening with Billy Van Zandt," as the internationally known playwright/actor launches his new memoir Because It's Funny (the Plays of Billy Van Zandt & Jane Milmore) – a sequel of sorts to his best-selling book Get in the Car, Jane! (Adventures in the TV Wasteland).
The evening, hosted by actor Jeff Babey, will benefit the Brookdale Performing Arts Center, as Billy and Jeff discuss the 25 internationally produced plays he and Jane wrote throughout their 45 years together. Their works have been produced in thousands of theaters worldwide and directed by the likes of Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis, and film icon Burt Reynolds, and have starred such actors as Adrienne Barbeau, Eva Longoria, Rose Marie, Barney Martin, Wesley Eure, Craig Bierko, and Donny Most, and of course the Unofficial Van Zandt/Milmore Repertory Company.
“These two people are a riot! Direct descendants of the Masters of the Madcap. Groucho and Lucy and even The Stooges. Billy and Jane brought farce to theater comedy in a way no others of their generation dared.” Robert Strauss, critic, New York Times.
Tickets for the event are $25, with all proceeds benefiting the Brookdale Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available for purchase online. There also will be books on hand to purchase at the event, signed by the author.
Twenty of their 45 years together, Billy and Jane premiered their plays on the Brookdale stage, with theater students working as crew members or with their designers, while they put over 30 students through college with a Van Zandt/Milmore scholarship.
In addition to an Emmy Award nomination, People’s Choice Award, and NAACP Image Awards for his TV work, Billy has been honored by the New Jersey State Legislature, the Red Cross, and most recently by his hometown, when the street he grew up on in Middletown was dedicated by the Mayor and the Township Committee as “Van Zandt Way.”
For more on Van Zandt Milmore productions, visit vanzandtmilmore.com. For the New Jersey Stage interview with Billy about his book, Get in the Car, Jane! (Adventures in the TV Wasteland), click here.
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