Print EXCLUSIVE Photo Coverage: Laura Benanti & More Celebrate Patti LuPone at Stephen Sondheim Awards Gala - The Reception!

The Tony Award®-winning Signature Theatre honored esteemed stage actress Patti LuPone with the company's third Stephen Sondheim Award on April 16, 2012. The award, established in 2009 in honor of America's most influential contemporary musical theater writer and composer, was presented at a black-tie Gala Benefit at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC. BroadwayWorld was there for the reception and brings you photo coverage below!

LuPone, a two-time Tony Award®-winner, has appeared in numerous Sondheim works, including Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and most recently in Gypsy in 2008, where she garnered a Tony Award®, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Drama League Award for her portrayal of Rose. She returns to the Broadway stage this November in An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.

Stephen Sondheim stated, "There are few performers who can play both Mrs. Lovett and Fosca, Evita and Reno Sweeney, Nancy in Oliver! and Cora Hoover Hooper in Anyone Can Whistle, and still create roles for David Mamet. In fact, there's only one. Versatility of such a high caliber is rare indeed, and therefore it couldn't be more appropriate that the recipient of this year's Signature Theatre Sondheim Award is going to the best tuba player on Broadway: Patti LuPone."

Patti LuPone's most recent stage credits include creating the role of Lucia in the musical Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown (Tony Award® nomination) and appearing as Joanne in the New York Philharmonic's concert production of Stephen Sondheim's Company. In May 2011, Miss LuPone made her debut with the New York City Ballet in their production of Weill and Brecht's The Seven Deadly Sins. She swept the 2008 theatre awards winning the Tony®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for her performance in the classic Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy.

CLICK HERE for photos from the ceremony!

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.