Sierra Boggess, Brian d’Arcy James, Paulo Szot, et al. to Perform at MTC Winter Gala Tonight

Manhattan Theatre Club will present its annual Winter Benefit, an evening of cocktails and dinner followed by a special one-night-only cabaret-style show featuring some of the biggest stars of musical theatre tonight at The Plaza (58th Street & Fifth Avenue).

This year’s Winter Benefit will be directed by MTC’s Artistic Director Lynne Meadow who is directing the current Broadway premiere of Wit now in previews at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).

The evening will feature performances by Sierra Boggess (Master Class, The Little Mermaid), Tony nominee Brian d’Arcy James (Time Stands Still, star of the upcoming series “Smash”), Tony Award winner Paulo Szot (South Pacific, Carmen) and Tony Award winner Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon, All Shook Up).

MTC Board members Fiona Kirk, Sharon Sullivan and Lisa Towbin are co-chairs of the event.

The evening’s creative team will include: John Lee Beatty (Set), Jennifer Schreiver (Lighting), Dan Gerhard (Sound), and Joel Silberman (Musical Director).

The Winter Benefit begins with cocktails at 7 PM followed by dinner at 8 PM with the performance beginning at approximately 9:15 PM. All proceeds from this annual event will support MTC’s mission as a leading non-profit theatre company producing contemporary plays on and off-Broadway.

Lynne Meadow (Director/Artistic Director, Manhattan Theatre Club) as Artistic Director, Lynne has been the artistic visionary and leader of MTC since 1972, creating work that has put the company at the forefront of the American theatre. She has accepted every major theatre award on behalf of MTC. Directing credits include Margaret Edson’s Wit, Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories (Broadway) and The Loman Family Picnic; Charles Busch’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (Broadway, national tour); Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind (Drama Desk nomination, Best Director) A Small Family Business (Broadway); David Greig’s The American Pilot; Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight and Magnolias (MTC, ALLIANCE THEATRE); Leslie Ayvazian’s Nine Armenians (Drama Desk nomination, Best Director); David Rudkin’s Ashes (the Public, Obie Award). American premieres by Marsha Norman, Simon Gray, Howard Brenton, etc. Graduate of Bryn Mawr College, attended Yale School of Drama. Mr. Abbott Award, Margo Jones Award, Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2011 Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement etc. Teaching: Yale, Fordham, NYU, Circle in the Square etc.

Sierra Boggess recently returned to the London stage for the 25th Anniversary Concerts of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. Prior to that, she starred opposite Tyne Daly in Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway revival of Terrence McNally's Master Class. Sierra was nominated for the 2011 Olivier Award as Best Actress for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies in the West End. Her other theatre credits include starring in the Broadway production of Disney's The Little Mermaid (Drama Desk and Drama League nominations and Broadway.com award for Favorite Breakthrough Performance) and in the City Center Encores! production of Music in the Air. Concert appearances include The BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series: The Lyrics of David Zippel, New York Pops at Lincoln Center and Broadway by the Year at Town Hall. Sierra’s recordings include the original cast albums of Love Never Dies and The Little Mermaid and Andrew Lippa’s A Little Princess. She holds a BFA from Millikin University.

BRIAN D’ARCY JAMES is currently shooting the first season of the TV show “Smash.” A Broadway veteran, he most recently earned rave reviews in Manhattan Theatre Club’s Time Stands Still. Other stage credits include Shrek the Musical (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Tony nomination), The Apple Tree, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Sweet Smell of Success (Tony, Outer Critics Circle Awards, Drama Desk nomination), Titanic, Carousel, Blood Brothers. Off-Broadway: Port Authority (Lucile Lortel Award, Drama Desk Award nomination), Next to Normal, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Pavilion, Flight, The Good Thief (Keen Company; Obie Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, Backstage Garland Award, L.A. Weekly Award), Pardon My English, The Wild Party (Drama Desk nomination), Public Enemy (by Kenneth Branagh), Floyd Collins, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Film/TV: Game Change, Friends with Kids, Ghost Town, Cashmere Mafia, Rescue Me. Solo debut album: From Christmas Eve to Christmas Morn. BS: Northwestern University.

Nikki M. James recently won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Nabalungi in The Book of Mormon which she is currently starring in. Other credits include: Broadway: All Shook Up (Lorraine), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Other Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), Caesar and Cleopatra (Cleopatra opposite Christopher Plummer) at Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Dorothy in The Wiz (Craig Noel Award) at La Jolla Playhouse, Adela in Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center Theater), Otillie in House of Flowers (City Center Encores!), Walmartopia (Off Broadway). Workshops: Lizzie in Baby (Papermill/NJPAC), Beehive on Broadway. TV: “30 Rock,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Third Watch,” “The Jury.” Holds a BFA in Drama from NYU.

Baritone Paulo Szot made his Broadway debut as Emile de Becque in Lincoln Center Theater’s 2008 revival of South Pacific, for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor in a Musical, a Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. He performs on the world’s major opera stages while continuing to perform in more intimate concert settings such as at the Café Carlyle, where he recently appeared for the third time. He has also appeared in concert at the Allen Room as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, with The New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Szot made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the company’s critically acclaimed production of Shostakovich’s The Nose, returned to the MET stage last season in Carmen and later this season will appear there once again in Manon. He made his professional opera debut at the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo in 1997, and since then has also performed with the Opera de Paris, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Opéra de Marséille and Liceo de Barcelona, among others.

For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.