Laura Benanti Will Headline The Long Wharf Theatre Gala

For one night only, Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti will appear at Long Wharf Theatre in her cabaret show, TALES FROM SOPRANO ISLE featuring songs from her career along with humorous anecdotes and experiences that she has encountered on and off the stage and screen. The presenting sponsor for the gala event is KeyBank.

Benanti will headline the theatre's 2019 Gala on Monday, June 3. The event begins at 6 p.m. with an elegant and sparkling cocktail reception featuring a sumptuous sampling of fine foods followed by Benanti's performance at 8 p.m. on the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre. The evening's festivities conclude with a pop of bubbly to round out a mouthwateringly delicious dessert reception.

For more information contact Kathy Cihi at kathy.cihi@longwharf.org or visit longwharf.org/gala-2019.

Tony Award-winner and five-time Tony Award nominee Laura Benanti is a highly celebrated stage and screen actress, with dozens of credits to her name. A native of Kinnelon, New Jersey, she won Paper Mill Playhouse's Rising Star Award for her portrayal of Dolly Levi in her high school production of Hello, Dolly!, and from there, she went on to take Broadway by storm, making her Broadway debut at the young age of 18 as Maria in The Sound of Music, opposite Richard Chamberlain.

Benanti is currently starring as Eliza Doolittle in Lincoln Center's revival of My Fair Lady, and was most recently seen onstage in Steve Martin's hit Broadway play, Meteor Shower, where she costarred alongside Amy Schumer and Keegan Michael Key. Other Broadway roles include Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, for which she was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Awards. For Lincoln Center, Laura was nominated for a Tony Award and won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her starring role in the Broadway production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and also starred in their Broadway production of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play. Ms. Benanti earned the 2008 Tony Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her revelatory portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy opposite Patti LuPone. Other Broadway roles include The Wedding Singer, Nine (starring Antonio Banderas), her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated performance of Cinderella in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, and her Tony nominated turn in Swing!.

Her television credits include a series regular role on the Samantha Bee and Jason Jones produced TBS show "The Detour," as well as recurring and guest appearances on CW's "Supergirl," ABC's "Nashville" and "Eli Stone," CBS' "The Good Wife" and "Elementary," Showtime's "Nurse Jackie" and "The Big C," NBC's "The Sound of Music Live," "The Playboy Club," "Go On," "Law and Order: SVU," USA's "Royal Pains," and FX's "Starved." She frequently appears on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in her comedic portrayal of First Lady Melania Trump.

Other distinguished theater performances include The Public Theater's production of Christopher Durang's Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Perdita in The Winter's Tale at the Williamstown Theatre Festival opposite Kate Burton, Anne in A Little Night Music at the L.A. Opera opposite Victor Garber, Eileen in Wonderful Town opposite Donna Murphy, and Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella, both for City Center Encores! Ms. Benanti has performed numerous concert engagements, both solo in her critically-lauded "Tales from Soprano Isle," and with her mother, in their new duo show "The Story Goes On." In September 2013, she released her debut album, "In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention: Live at 54 Below" on Broadway Records to rave reviews.

She currently resides in Manhattan with her husband Patrick and daughter Ella.

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