One of Broadway’s brightest stars, Bernadette Peters, will be the recipient of the Distinguished Dedication and Service to the American Musical Theater Award, presented by Westport Country Playhouse at the theater’s “80th Birthday” gala, “Playing Our Songs: Celebrating 80 Years of Musical Theater,” on the evening of Monday, September 19. This year’s gala production will be a retrospective of the musicals that have graced the Playhouse stage since its founding in 1931.
"Bernadette Peters is not only a force of nature and a Broadway musical star of legendary significance, she is also a true artist: boldly exploratory, constantly refining her enormous talent, always challenging herself, never sitting on her laurels,” said Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director. “Whatever she does, watching her is akin to watching the great classical musicians who constantly stretch themselves and excite audiences not only with sheer charisma-- which she has in spades, to be sure-- but with a sense of refinement and that is unparalleled in American musical theater. She goes for the truth of a song with the force of a heat-seeking missile."
Bernadette Peters appeared at Westport Country Playhouse in Riverwind in 1967. At the 2008 Gala, she presented a tribute to Angela Lansbury. Coincidentally, the Playhouse’s 2012 season will open with Into the Woods, a musical that starred Ms. Peters as the Witch in the original Broadway production.
Throughout her illustrious career, the Tony Award-winning actress has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage, in television and films, on recordings and in concert. Ms. Peters most recently starred in The Kennedy Center's critically acclaimed production of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical, Follies, which will begin previews on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre on August 7, with a September 12 opening. Prior to that, she starred on Broadway opposite Elaine Stritch in the Tony Award-winning masterpiece, A Little Night Music.
A native of Ozone Park, New York, Peters began her performing career at the age of three. She made her theatrical debut in This Is Goggle, starring James Daly and Kim Hunter, directed by Otto Preminger.
Peters made her Broadway debut in 1967 in Johnny No-Trump, and in 1968 starred with Joel Grey in the musical George M!, earning a Theatre World Award for her memorable portrayal of Josie Cohan. That same year, she received a Drama Desk Award for her showstopping performance in the Off-Broadway musical Dames at Sea, and quickly became one of the most sought-after stars in musical theater.
Peters received both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for her critically acclaimed performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance. In 1999, Peters earned her second Tony Award, her third Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her portrayal of Annie Oakley in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun.
Peters also received Tony Award nominations for her performances in the 1992 musical The Goodbye Girl; Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 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 classic On the Town. In addition to these honors, Peters earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her memorable portrayal of the Witch in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. In 2003, Peters received her seventh Tony Award nomination for her electrifying portrayal of Momma Rose in Sam Mendes’ Broadway revival of Gypsy.
In addition to numerous Grammy Award-winning Broadway cast albums, 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 Award nomination); Sondheim Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall (Grammy Award nomination); I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Grammy Award nomination); Bernadette Peters; and Now Playing.
A performer of amazing versatility, Peters has lit up the silver screen in 17 films. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Pennies from Heaven. Her many television credits include appearances in several performing arts specials such as PBS’ Evening at Pops and The Kennedy Center Honors, as well as the star-studded Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall.
Peters has received numerous accolades throughout her distinguished career, ranging from the Tony Award to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Other honors include the Sarah Siddons Actress of the Year Award and Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year for her “lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.”
Peters devotes her time and talents to numerous events that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Her “pet project” is Broadway Barks, which she co-founded with friend Mary Tyler Moore. The star-studded dog and cat adoption event is presented each summer in Shubert Alley, benefiting over two dozen rescue shelters throughout the New York City area.
Westport Country Playhouse’s annual fundraising gala will include pre-show cocktails, a performance and post-show dinner and parties. In addition, there will be silent and live auctions of unique and one-of-a-kind items.
Gala tickets are $2500, $1000 and $500. Corporate sponsorship packages are available. For more gala information or ticket purchases, contact Kathryn Gloor at (203) 227-5137, ext. 122, or kgloor@westportplayhouse.org.
About the Playhouse
Reimagining itself in recent years, Westport Country Playhouse is rapidly emerging as a nationally recognized professional theater. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management direction of Michael Ross, the Playhouse creates five live theater experiences, produced at the highest level, from April through November. Its vital mix of works---dramatic, comedic, occasionally exploratory and unusual---expands the audience’s sense of what theater can be. The depth and scope of its productions display the foremost theatrical literature from the past---recent as well as distant---in addition to musicals and premieres of new plays. During the summer, the Playhouse is home to the Woodward Internship Program, renowned for the training of aspiring theater professionals. Winter at the Playhouse, from November through March, offers events outside of the main season---Family Festivities presentations, Script in Hand play readings and a Holiday Festival. In addition, businesses and organizations are encouraged to rent the handsome facility for their meetings, receptions and fundraisers.
As an historic venue, Westport Country Playhouse has had many different lives leading up to the present. Originally built in 1835 as a tannery manufacturing hatters’ leathers, it became a steam-powered cider mill in 1880, later to be abandoned in the 1920s. Splendidly transformed into a theater in 1931, it initially served as a try-out house for Broadway transfers, evolving into an established stop on the New England straw hat circuit of summer stock theaters through the end of the 20th century.
Today, the not-for-profit Westport Country Playhouse serves as a cultural nexus for patrons, artists and students and is a treasured resource for the State of Connecticut. There are no boundaries to the creative thinking for future seasons or the kinds of audiences and excitement for theater that Westport Country Playhouse can build.
Westport Country Playhouse’s five-play 2011 season: “Beyond Therapy,” a wicked, and wickedly funny, look at the days and nights of the young and single, written by comic master Christopher Durang and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, April 26 – May 14; “The Circle,” the scintillating comedy of manners, written by W. Somerset Maugham and directed by Nicholas Martin, June 7 – June 25; “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” a perceptive comedy about people struggling against their limitations, written by Terrence McNally and directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, July 12 – July 30; “Suddenly Last Summer,” the poetic, sensual and evocative drama, written by Tennessee Williams and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, August 23 – September 10; and “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” the beguiling comedy/romance, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Mark Lamos, October 11 – November 5.
For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse) or get an insider’s peek on The Playhouse Blog (www.theplayhouseblog.org).
