Theatre Under The Stars announced today that it is one of a select group of nonprofit arts organizations participating in a three-part virtual concert series, Live from the West Side: Women of Broadway featuring two-time Tony Award®-winner Patti LuPone on Saturday, Oct. 24, Tony Award winner Laura Benanti on Saturday, Nov. 14, and critically-acclaimed actress and singer Vanessa Williams on Saturday, Dec. 5.
Digital passes for each individual livestream concert are $30 and a discounted 3-show package is available for $75. Passes for Live from the West Side: Women of Broadway include access to the live performances plus an additional 72 hours of on-demand viewing, available beginning one hour after each live broadcast ends. Proceeds from ticket sales will support Theatre Under The Stars, Houston’s home for musical theatre.
Each show, transmitted live in HD with professional sound mixing, will feature an array of Broadway showtunes, pop songs, and personal stories from the life of each headliner. Performances will take place at The Shubert Virtual Studios on Manhattan’s West Side. At-home audience members will be invited to email in questions to be answered during the livestream.
“We’re thrilled to bring these legendary women of Broadway directly into the living rooms of our supporters,” said Dan Knechtges, TUTS Artistic Director. “These concerts will feel like intimate, cabaret-style experiences, from the comfort of home. We’re really excited to share them with musical theatre fans in Houston.”
The livestreams, which are a co-production of Dallas Summer Musicals and Entertainment Benefits Group, are being shared by more than 20 nonprofit arts presenters around the country.
About Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone can currently be seen on Netflix as Avis Amberg in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series “Hollywood” and recently won the Olivier and What’s OnStage awards for her performance as Joanne in Marianne Elliott’s production of the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical Company in London’s West End.
Her recent NY stage appearances include the Scott Frankel-Michael Korie-Douglas Wright-Michael Grief musical War Paint (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical); Douglas Carter Beane’s new play Shows For Days, directed by Jerry Zaks at Lincoln Center Theater; her debut with the New York City Ballet as Anna 1 in their new production of The Seven Deadly Sins; Joanne in the New York Philharmonic’s production of Company; David Mamet’s The Anarchist; and Lincoln Center Theater’s production of the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, for which she was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards.
About Laura Benanti
In the midst of an illustrious career spanning Broadway, film, and television, Tony® Award-winning actress, singer, author, and activist Laura Benanti now brings a longstanding dream to life as she gears up to release new solo music with Sony Music Masterworks.
With Broadway credits ranging from the My Fair Lady revival and Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower to She Loves Me, Laura garnered a Tony Award in the category of Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the 2008 production of Gypsy—among five career nominations to date. Meanwhile, her performance in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown would be honored with the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Simultaneously, she enchanted audiences on the small screen, appearing on Younger, Supergirl, Nashville, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, and more in addition to films including WORTH and the upcoming Here Today.
About Vanessa Williams
Vanessa Williams is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers in the entertainment industry today. Having sold millions of records worldwide, Vanessa has also achieved numerous #1 and Top 10 hits on various Billboard Album and Singles charts: Pop, Dance, R&B, Adult Contemporary, Holiday, Latin, Gospel and Jazz.
Her critically acclaimed work in film, television, recordings and the Broadway stage has been recognized by every major industry award affiliate including 4 Emmy nominations, 11 Grammy nominations, a Tony nomination, 3 SAG award nominations, 7 NAACP Image Awards and 3 Satellite Awards. Her platinum single “Colors of the Wind,” from Disney’s Pocahontas, won the Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
A graduate of Syracuse University, Vanessa is a strong advocate for equal rights, especially concerning the LGBTQ+ community and minorities. She was honored with the Human Rights Campaign “Ally for Equality” Award for her humanitarian contributions. Vanessa also achieved a career pinnacle with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.
Vanessa’s autobiography, You Have No Idea, co-written with her mother Helen Williams, was a New York Times Best Seller in 2012.
Her recent Broadway credits include co-starring with Cicely Tyson in The Trip to Bountiful (the #1 play of the 2013 season), After Midnight (2014), and a special limited engagement in Hey, Look Me Over at New York City Center in 2018. Vanessa was recently in previews for Josie Rourke’s City of Angels in London’s West End, when production was suddenly forced to pause due to COVID-19.
