PATTI LUPONE Heads to Broadway for 'Cradle Will Rock' One-Night Only, 5/19

Patti LuPone-with all the sensitivity and fight she's famous for-steps back into the role that led to her Olivier Award (and being cast as the original Fantine in Les Miz) on Monday, May 19 in The Cradle Will Rock at 7pm at Broadway's Bernard Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th Street. The one-night concert of Marc Blitzstein's iconic work will benefit The Acting Company, which Pattifounded with Kevin Kline, John Houseman and Margot Harley. Lonny Price (Lincoln Center's Sweeney Todd, Lady Day) will direct;Michael Barrett (Caramoor, NY Festival of Song) is musical director. Patti's son Josh Johnston and cousin Johann Carlo-also alums of The Acting Company-will join Patti and a cast of Broadway regulars. Tickets from $52 are on sale through Telechacrge.com 212-239-6200; information on benefit tickets including dinner with Ms. LuPone and the cast is available from 212-258-3111.

"Cradle is an amazing and legendary piece of theater history that is still relevant today," said Ms. LuPone. "It's part Gilbert and Sullivan, part Brecht, part Weil." It was first developed by John Houseman and directed by Orson Welles; Houseman directed Ms. LuPone and his beloved Acting Company in it in New York and at the Old Vic in London in the 1980's. "I can't wait to get back into it;" said Ms. LuPone, "it is so special and means the world to me that Josh and Johann are part of it."

Joining Patti LuPone and Michael Barrett are Acting Company Alumni spanning its 41 years. Randle Mell, David Schramm (Finian's Rainbow, TV's Wings), Tom Alan Robbins (Newsies, The Lion King), Brian Reddy (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Casey Biggs (TFANA'sHamlet), Mary Lou Rosato and Denise Woods will return along with other Acting Company Alums Derek Smith (The Dance of Death, The Lion King), Johann Carlo, Fred Arsenault (Born Yesterday, The Royal Family), Todd Cerveris (War Horse, South Pacific) andSuzy Kohane, Grant Fletcher Prewitt and Josh Johnston who will have just finished the Company's 2013-14 tour.

"The Cradle Will Rock, set in 'Steeltown, USA' focuses on the efforts of the town's workers to combat a greedy businessman," said Margot Harley, The Acting Company Producer and co-founder. "It is first-rate theater and our cast of Broadway regulars will find even richer meanings today."

The Acting Company has toured 138 productions to 49 states and 10 foreign countries earning a TONY for Excellence in Theater, Obies, Audelcos and Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards. Rainn Wilson, Frances Conroy, Jeffrey Wright, Harriet Harris, Keith David,Hamish Linklater and Jesse L. Martin are but a handful of other performers who began their careers on tour with The Acting Company.

Photo credit: Martha Swope; Patti's headshot by Ethan Hill