The Gaudium Awards 2025

October 20, 2025 at 6:30 p.m.

Location: The Lotos Club, 5 East 66th Street, NY NY 10065

This year's honorees include:

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  JEFF HARNAR / ALEX RYBECK

  This is the first dual Gaudium Award to be given since its inception. Frequent collaborators for the past 42 years, Jeff and Alex have delighted audiences with performances marked by artistry and sophistication. Together with their uniquely crafted, award-winning shows, they have appeared in leading cabaret and concert venues worldwide, had their performances televised on PBS and recorded acclaimed albums honoring the Great American Songbook. Jeff is also a multi-award-winning director known for guiding singers to acclaimed performances. A MAC Award recipient for Musical Direction, Alex is a pianist, arranger, and composer with Broadway credits and extensive experience coaching stage and screen performers.

• 

  BAAYORK LEE

  A Chinatown native, Baayork Lee made her Broadway debut at age five in The King and I with Yul Brynner. Too short for a ballet career, she turned to musical theatre, appearing in the original Broadway productions of Flower Drum Song, Mr. President, Golden Boy, and Here’s Love. Her high school classmate Michael Bennett cast her in three of his Broadway shows, including A Chorus Line, where she became part of that legendary original cast. Baayork has since restaged the choreography of A Chorus Line around the world and received a Tony Award for her charitable work. She is the founder of the National Asian Artists Project, dedicated to creating opportunities for Asian performers.

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  JANE PAULEY

  Indiana native Jane Pauley has been a popular host and journalistic presence on America’s television screens since the early 1970s. Jane has distinguished herself as a genial and engaging anchor on a series of important news programs. For a period, she was hailed as “America’s favorite newswoman.” She continued on television in special reporting and correspondence, while also authoring a memoir and a frank guide to midlife renewal. In 2016, after a popular appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, Jane was named permanent host. She has remained a singularly popular one since then. Married to Gaudium recipient Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame, Jane has received numerous prestigious awards, including an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

• 

  John Douglas Thompson

  Now that he is armed with a Tony nomination, two Drama Desk Awards, three Obie Awards, Outer Critics, John Douglas Thompson seems far away from his beginning career as a computer salesman. Born in Bath, England, he studied business but eventually he earned an MFA at Brown. His breakthrough was playing Othello and The Emperor Jones. The NY Times critic said: “There may be no better actor in the New York theatre right now.” His solo performance as Louis Armstrong in Satchmo at the Waldorf was award winning. Audiences have seen him both on screen and on television. With still strong connections to Theater for A New Audience, John resides in Brooklyn.

Benefitting

NAZARETH HOUSING / LOUISE’S PANTRY
OPPORTUNITY MUSIC PROJECT
THE NATIONAL ASIAN ARTISTS PROJECT