VIDEO: Happy Birthday to Broadway Legend Bernadette Peters
Peters has starred in such shows as Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Annie Get Your Gun, GYpsy, and many more!
By: Team BWW Feb. 28, 2022
Happy Birthday to the one and only Bernadette Peters! Today, we're celebrating one of Broadway's favorite stars with a look back on some highlights from her career.
Spanning over 6 decades, Tony Award-winning actress Bernadette Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage, on television, in concert, and in the recording industry. Peters received both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for her critically-acclaimed performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Song and Dance. She garnered her seventh Tony nomination for her memorable performance as Mama Rose in Sam Mendes' critically-acclaimed revival of Gypsy.
Peters also received Tony nominations for her work in the 1992 musical The Goodbye Girl; Stephen Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George; the Jerry Herman/Gower Champion ode to the movies, Mack and Mabel; and the Leonard Bernstein/Comden and Green musical On The Town. In addition to these honors, Peters earned a Drama Desk nomination for her memorable portrayal of the Witch in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods.
Most recently, she appeared on Broadway in the revival of Hello, Dolly! in 2018.
While Peters is best known for her work in the theatre, she also boasts an impressive list of television credits ranging from performing arts specials such as PBS' Evening at Pops and The Kennedy Center Honors to appearances in variety shows such as The Carol Burnett Show and an Emmy-nominated performance on The Muppet Show. She appeared in the star-studded Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall and also played an opera diva-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown in Terrence McNally's The Last Mile, both for PBS' highly acclaimed Great Performances series. Other television credits include PBS's Hey Mr. Producer!: The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh and the ABC-TV special Quincy Jones: The First 50 Years.
Peters has lit up the silver screen in 17 films, and received a Golden Globe Award for her memorable performance in Pennies From Heaven. Film credits include The Jerk with Steve Martin, The Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds, Silent Movie with Mel Brooks, Annie with Carol Burnett, Pink Cadillac with Clint Eastwood, Slaves of New York with Mercedes Ruehl, Woody Allen's Alice with Mia Farrow, Impromptu with Hugh Grant and Mandy Patinkin, and most recently, It Runs in the Family, starring opposite Kirk and Michael Douglas.
Bernadette Peters devotes her time and talents to numerous events that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Gay Men's Health Crisis, for whom she also performed in a benefit concert version of Anyone Can Whistle. Peters' "pet project" is Broadway Barks, an annual, star-studded dog adoption event, she founded with friend Mary Tyler Moore, benefiting animal shelters throughout New York. She resides in New York City and Los Angeles.
Below, check out some videos of Peters in many of her iconic roles, from Into the Woods, to Gypsy, Follies, and of course, Dolly.
On The Town medley - 1972
Mack and Mabel - 1974
Sunday in the Park With George - 1984
Song and Dance - 1985
Into the Woods - 1987
The Goodbye Girl - 1993
Cinderella- 1997
Annie Get Your Gun - 1999
Gypsy - 2003
A Little Night Music - 2010
Follies - 2011
Hello, Dolly! - 2018
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist- 2021
Videos
