Photo Flash: Laura Benanti Brings LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU to Feinstein's

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY, the nightclub proclaimed "Best of New York" by New York Magazine and "an invaluable New York institution" by The New York Post, continued its all-star Spring 2011 season with the return of Tony Award-winning Broadway star, Laura Benanti. Her new show "Let Me Entertain You" featured songs from her Broadway roles in Gypsy ("Let Me Entertain You"), Nine ("Unusual Way"), Into The Woods ("Children Will Listen") and Swing! ("Skylark" and "Hit Me With A Hot Note"), in addition to classics such as "Alright, Okay, You Win," "They All Laughed" and "If I Were A Bell." "

Laura Benanti - who has brought her unique abilities to comedies, dramas and musicals since she took Broadway by storm at the age of 18 - recently starred in the Broadway production of Women On The Nerve Of A Nervous Breakdown for Lincoln Center Theater, where she also starred last year in Sarah Ruhl's In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play, for which she garnered her critical acclaim for her heartbreaking and brave performance. Earlier that season Benanti also demonstrated her "breezy comic flair" in The Public Theater's production of Christopher Durang's Why Torture Is Wrong and The People Who Love Them.

Benanti gave what The New York Times called "the performance of her career" and earned the 2008 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her revelatory portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy opposite Patti LuPone and directed by Arthur Laurents. Her other Broadway roles include her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominated performance of Cinderella in Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods and her sultry Tony nominated turn in Swing! She also starred opposite Antonio Banderas as his muse in the celebrated revival of Nine. Benanti began her multifaceted career as Maria in The Sound of Music opposite Richard Chamberlain.

Other distinguished theater performances include Perdita in A Winter's Tale at the Williamstown Theater Festival opposite Kate Burton, Anne in A Little Night Music at the LA opera opposite Victor Garber, and Eileen in the City Center Encores! Wonderful Town, opposite Donna Murphy. Benanti was most recently tapped to star in the NBC pilot "Playboy." Other television roles include her heralded portrayal of Billie on FX's controversial comedy "Starved," a recurring role on ABC's one hour dramedy "Eli Stone," and her appearance as Michael Imperioli's wife on ABC's "Life on Mars." Benanti made her leap to the silver screen in 2005 in the film Take The Lead opposite her Nine co-star Antonio Banderas as his love interest and can also be seen in the independent films Falling For Grace and Meskada, which debuted at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

Photo Credit: Jamie McGonnigal