Laura Benanti News

Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers and commentators for all media covering New York theatre announced today its award winners for the 2010-11 season in 23 categories.

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, May 15, 2011 - Sunday, May 15, 2011.

NBC has announced its fall scheduling, hoping to build its ratings, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Tony Award Winning Actress Laura Benanti's NBC pilot, 'Playboy Club' has been picked up by the network. Here's the first video tease from the show which will premiere on Monday night's this fall featuring Laura as Carol-Lynne, the very first 'Bunny'!

Paper Mill Playhouse hosted its Center Stage Celebration on Friday, May 13th at the Hilton Short Hills. The benefit honored eight time Academy Award®-winning composer Alan Menken with the theater's prestigious Frank Carrington Excellence in the Arts Award. There to add to the entertainment of the evening and help honor the music man was Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Laura Benanti. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the event and brings you photo coverage of the gala below.

Tony Award Winning Actress Laura Benant's NBC pilot, 'Playboy Club' has been picked up by the network.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is hosting its largest fundraising event of the year, The Center Stage Celebration on Friday, May 13th at the Hilton Short Hills. Tables and individual tickets are now on sale. For more information on Paper Mill Playhouse's Center Stage Celebration or to purchase tickets please contact Roberta Morton at 973-315-1663, rmorton@papermill.org or visit Paper Mill Playhouse's website, www.papermill.org.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is hosting its largest fundraising event of the year, The Center Stage Celebration on Friday, May 13th at the Hilton Short Hills. Tables and individual tickets are now on sale. For more information on Paper Mill Playhouse's Center Stage Celebration or to purchase tickets please contact Roberta Morton at 973-315-1663, rmorton@papermill.org or visit Paper Mill Playhouse's website, www.papermill.org.

The Drama League has announced the rosters of stars who will appear as presenters at The 77th Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon on Friday, May 20, 2011 (noon) in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square (1535 Broadway at 46th Street). The ceremony will be hosted by Kathleen Turner (High).

Since their inception in 1996 the Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) Rising Star Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theatre have ignited the careers of many notable performers, all of whom attended high school in New Jersey. Among the early nominees and winners are Academy Award® nominee Anne Hathaway, Tony® award winner Laura Benanti, and 2011 Tony® nominee, Nikki M. James.

Barrow Street Theatre and Jean Doumanian Productions launch a summer music series at the Barrow Street Theatre with a concert of new music by acclaimed composer Todd Almond. Todd Almond: Wyoming and Parts of Kansas, is a travelogue-in-song event inspired by the songwriter's journey across the American plains. Special Guest Maria Dizzia (In The Next Room or the vibrator play, Drunken City) and musicians will join Almond in this one-of-a-kind musical story telling event for one-night only on Monday, May 9th at 8:00 p.m. at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street). Running time is 85 minutes.

Barbra Streisand is still set to play Mama Rose in GYPSY movie, despite author Arthur Laurents' death, according to Michael Musto of The Village Voice.

The Broadway community mourns the loss of Arthur Laurents, who passed away Thursday night at age 93.

As BroadwayWorld has previously reported, Broadway producer Bob Boyett is planning to revive FUNNY GIRL on Broadway with famed director Bartlett Sher (South Pacific, Awake and Sing, The Light in the Piazza) at the helm. Though no official comment has been made on production plans, it has been reported that the pair are currently planning a six week out-of-town tryout in late 2011 prior to a swift Broadway transfer thereafter. This would be the first revival of the show on Broadway. Boyett currently secures the rights.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes) and Signature Theatre Company (Founding Artistic Director James Houghton; Executive Director Erika Mallin) in association with the Guthrie Theater (Joe Dowling, Director) present the New York premiere of Tony Kushner's THE INTELLIGENT HOMOSEXUAL'S GUIDE TO CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM WITH A KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES. Michael Greif, who directed the world premiere at the Guthrie in April, 2009, directs the New York premiere which opened last night!

The 2011 Tony Award nominees were announced in New York City on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 and Broadway hasn't stopped buzzing since! On Wednesday, the proud nominees and a slew of press gathered at the Millenium Hotel in Times Square to celebrate and talk all things Tony. BroadwayWorld was on hand, of course, and as part of our special coverage, captured portrait shots of many of this year's nominees in the BroadwayWorld.com booth. Stay tuned for our special video series as well.

Riverside Park Fund is pleased to announce that Broadway star and Tony winner Laura Benanti will perform at this year's benefit gala, celebrating 25 years of conservancy. The gala, entitled Broadway at the Boat Basin, will be held Monday, June 20 at the Boat Basin Café in the historic Rotunda in Riverside Park. Ms. Benanti was just nominated for a Tony for her performance in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Ms. Benanti tells Riverside Park Fund, 'I have run, walked, played, lounged and enjoyed every minute of my time in Riverside Park. It is a rare blessing to have such a beautiful oasis for people from all walks of life. It is my absolute honor to contribute through song to the preservation of this New York treasure.' Ms. Benanti joins an impressive roster of performers who have all contributed their voices to Riverside Park's well-loved gala under the stars, including Kelli O'Hara, who performed to a sold-out crowd last year, and Brian Stokes Mitchell the year prior. Ms. Benanti is featured on the original Broadway cast album of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which will arrive in stores May 10th.

The 2011 Tony Award nominees were announced live from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Yesterday, the proud nominees gathered at the Millenium Hotel in Times Square to celebrate and meet the press. BroadwayWorld was on hand, of course, and brings you part 1 of the morning's photo coverage below!

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced May 3, 2011 by Tony Award winning actor Matthew Broderick and Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM.

Staging one of the theatre's most unique and unclassifiable pieces, Brecht & Weill's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the New York City Ballet, starting May 11 and running through May 16, is just the latest act in a career made up of anomalies, seemingly built upon always attempting to do the impossible - from her Broadway debut, trying to bring balletic bravado to Trevor Nunn's terminally troubled 1988 musical CHESS (a project begun under the guidance of Michael Bennett before his death), up through the trying-but-Tony-winning TITANIC in 1997 and, this century, SWING! starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti and a succession of successful regional ballets and theatre pieces - the gifted and dynamic director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett continues to challenge herself, her peers and audiences with each of her audacious new endeavors. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, starring two-time Tony-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Anna I, is a particularly problematic play - or is it a musical? Or, is it a ballet? A song-spiel? - and in this revealing and engaging discussion, Ms. Taylor-Corbett and I attempt to deduce the themes, analyze the structure and look back at the authors' lives to gain insight into the perplexing America painted by Brecht and Weill in the forty-minute-long theatrical experiment. Also, in this complete conversation, Lynne and I take a look back at her long and varied career and she generously shares her thoughts on where the place of dance is in the twenty-first century, the exhilaration of working with a theatre artist like Patti LuPone, her own inspirations and formative experiences in the theatre, the legacy of Michael Powell and THE RED SHOES, the theatre versus the dance world, her son Shaun's career, and much, much more! Further information on THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - including tickets - is available here.