Bernadette Peters Makes Debut at Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 2009

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival has announced the 2009 headline act, stage and screen star Bernadette Peters.  Appearing in her only Australian performances, on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June in the Festival Theatre. The show will be directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, with musical direction by Marvin Laird.

Throughout her illustrious career, Tony Award-winning Bernadette Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage, on television, in concert, and in the recording industry.

One of Broadway’s brightest stars, 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 Tony nominations for her memorable performance as Momma Rose in Sam Mendes’ critically-acclaimed revival of Gypsy. “Bernadette Peters is a revelation!” Ben Brantley of The New York Times declared of her star turn in the show. 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.

While Peters is best known for her work in the theatre, her career doesn’t end at the footlights. She 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 received an Emmy nomination for her performance in FOX’s hit TV series Ally McBeal. She portrayed the wicked stepmother in Cinderella with Brandy and Whitney Houston, and also starred in What The Deaf Man Heard; The Odyssey starring Armand Assante, David, Fall From Grace with Kevin Spacey, and The Last Best Year with Mary Tyler Moore. She also appeared in the Showtime movie Bobbie’s Girl (Daytime Emmy nomination) and Prince Charming, a TNT movie co-starring Martin Short and Christina Applegate.

Peters recorded the original title song for the 1998 feature film Barney’s Great Adventure: The Movie, written by famed Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly!, Mame). She can also be heard as the voice of “Sophie” in the feature film Anastasia, as “Angelique” in the special home video Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas, as Sue in The Land Before Time: The Great Longneck Migration, and the voice of Rita the Cat in the popular Steven Spielberg animated program Animaniacs.

A performer of amazing versatility, Peters has lit up the silver screen in 17 films throughout her distinguished career. She 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.

In addition to numerous Grammy Award-winning Broadway cast albums including Gypsy and Annie Get Your Gun, Peters has recorded six solo albums: Sondheim, Etc., Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall (The Rest of It); Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein (Grammy Nomination); the live recording Sondheim Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live At Carnegie Hall (Grammy Nomination); I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Grammy Nomination); Bernadette Peters; and Now Playing.

Peters has received numerous accolades throughout her distinctive career, ranging from the Tony Award to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd

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