Peters, Benanti, & Esparza Added to Westport Benefit

Laura Benanti, Raúl Esparza, Angela Lansbury, Steven Pasquale and Bernadette Peters have been added to the roster of stars on stage at Westport Country Playhouse's annual gala in Westport, CT (JoAnne Woodward and Anne Keefe, artistic directors, Jodi Schoenbrun Carter, managing director) on Monday, September 15.  As previously announced, Julia Roberts will host the fundraising event.

The evening's entertainment, "Footlights and Film:  A Celebration of the Great Musicals from Stage and Screen," will feature a tribute to Angela Lansbury presented by Bernadette Peters, with performances by Laura Benanti, Raúl Esparza, Steven Pasquale and other special guests.  Gala chairs are Westporters Laurie Lister and Judd Burstein, and Sharon Sullivan and Jeff Kindler. Honorary chairs are JoAnne Woodward and Paul Newman.
 
Suzanne and Bob Wright will be honored for their incalculable contributions to The Playhouse, including Mr. Wright's leadership of The Playhouse's successful $32 million "Capital Campaign for a New Era," and Ms. Wright's co-chairing of numerous record-breaking fundraising events.
 
Laura Benanti is currently starring in the title role of the Patti LuPone revival of "Gypsy," for which she was honored with the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards.  She previously appeared on Broadway in "Into the Woods" (Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, La Ovation and Tony nominations), "Swing!" (Tony Award nomination), "Nine," "The Sound of Music" and "Wonderful Town."  She is married to actor Steven Pasquale.
 
Raúl Esparza earned a Tony Award nomination and Drama Desk Award as Best Actor in 2006 for "Company," and this year received another Tony nomination for Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming."  He also appeared on Broadway in "Taboo" (Tony nomination; Drama Desk Award, Best Featured Actor), "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "Cabaret" and "The Rocky Horror Show" (Theatre World Award).

Angela Lansbury earned an Oscar nomination for her screen debut in the 1944 drama "Gaslight."  She received two more Oscar nominations for 1945's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and 1962's "The Manchurian Candidate."  Ms. Lansbury won four Tony Awards---for "Mame" (1966), "Dear World" (1969), "Gypsy" (1975) and "Sweeney Todd" (1979). She then settled in to a long-run on television as Jessica Fletcher, the mystery writing amateur sleuth of "Murder, She Wrote" (1984-96), earning an Emmy nomination each year. She returned to the Broadway stage in 2007 to star in "Deuce" and picked up yet another Tony nomination.

Steven Pasquale is a Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee for his work in Lincoln Center's "A Man of No Importance." He has starred in Neil LaBute's "Fat Pig" (MCC), "Beautiful Child" (Vineyard Theatre), "A Soldier's Story" (Second Stage), "Spinning into Butter" (Lincoln Center), "The Spitfire Grill" (Playwrights Horizons), "The Wild Party" (MTC) and "Miss Saigon."  He created the role of Fabrizio in Adam Guettel's "The Light in the Piazza" at the Sundance Theater Lab and the Intiman Theatre. He has appeared on HBO's "Six Feet Under," Sophia Copola's "Platinum," and the indy films "Aurora Borealis" and "The Last Run." He is the star of Fox's hit film "AVP Requiem."  He is best known for his work as Sean Garrity on FX's hit series "Rescue Me."  He is married to Tony Award-winning actress Laura Benanti.

Bernadette Peters won Tony Awards for "Song and Dance" and "Annie Get Your Gun."  She also appeared in "Sunday in the Park with George" (Tony Award nominee), "Into the Woods" (Drama Desk Award nominee), "Dames at Sea" (Drama Desk Award winner), "On the Town" (Tony Award nominee), "Mack and Mabel" (Tony Award nominee), "The Goodbye Girl" (Tony Award nominee) and the 2003 revival of "Gypsy" (Tony Award nominee). Her films include "The Jerk," "Pennies from Heaven" and "Annie."

Director of "Footlights and Film" is Joe Calarco; musical direction is by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

The celebratory evening will include a champagne welcome at 6 p.m., a star-studded musical performance in The Playhouse's Jason Robards Theatre at 6:30 p.m., cocktails and silent auction at 8 p.m., and dinner with celebrity guests at 8:45 p.m.
 
Funds raised by the event will further artistic and educational programming at Westport Country Playhouse, now open year-round.  Patron tickets are $2,000.  Corporate and individual Benefactor and Leader tables with seating for 10 are $25,000 and $50,000, respectively.  A limited number of performance-only tickets are $600. Reservations are limited by the intimate size of the theatre. 

Photo by Walter McBride/ Retna Ltd.