Southampton’s Patricia Watt, Carolyn Kendall Buchter, Bruce Michael, Cassandra Seidenfeld Lyster and Alix Michel were among the notable Hamptonites hosting the 29th Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards, the only awards honoring excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film, at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Top honors went to Anything Goes’ Sutton Foster (Best Female Dancer), Catch Me if You Can’s Norbert Leo Butz (Best Male Dancer), Mao’s Last Dancer’s Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon (Best Film Choreographers) and Jacques d’Amboise (Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award). The star-studded crowd included Brian Stokes Mitchell, Maurice Hines, Ava Astaire McKenzie, Bebe Neuwirth, Lee Roy Reams, Wendy Federman and Kathleen Marshall and Hamptonites Jean Shafiroff, Robert Lyster, Caroline Lieberman, Richard Novak, Don Duga, Berry Brown and Andrew Wargo. Sara Johnson Kaplan and Jamie Watkins were benefit co-chairs. The evening was directed by Joe Lanteri. The awards were founded by the late drama critic Douglas Watt of Southampton and Fred Astaire. Long Island’s Dynamic Dance Company closed the show with an electrifying finale.
Robert Zimmerman of Southampton has been appointed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission. SAGE is the first major redesign of state government since Governor Alfred E. Smith in 1927. The 20-member commission has been established to modernize and right-size state government, improve performance, increase accountability and save taxpayers
