Signature Theatre to Offer $75 Tickets to Betty Buckley Benefit

Signature Theatre will present an evening of cocktails and a special one-night-only concert starring one of Broadway's living legends, Betty Buckley, on Monday, September 30 in The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W. 42nd Street) to support the Legacy Program in honor of Horton Foote. Buckley will be singing some of musical theatre's most iconic songs, including songs she's sung in her sold-out national concert appearances. Tickets start at $150 for both the pre-show cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m. and the concert at 7:30 p.m. A limited number of $75 concert only tickets are now available. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 646-388-8118 or email sjohnson@signaturetheatre.org (for the $75 ticket offer, mention code BB75).

Betty Buckley is currently performing in Signature's World Premiere production of Horton Foote's The Old Friends. The production is directed by Michael Wilson, who helmed The Orphans' Home Cycle at Signature during the 2009-10 Season, and also features HAllie Foote (The Orphans' Home Cycle) and Lois Smith (Heartless, The Illusion, The Trip to Bountiful). In The Old Friends, members of two Texas farming families are forced to confront generations of disloyalty and disappointment when one of them returns after a 20-year absence. The Old Friends has been extended through October 13, 2013.

Signature has a long history with Horton Foote, who was the theatre's fourth Playwright-in-Residence during its 1994-95 Season. Signature also produced the World Premiere of The Last of the Thorntons in its 2000-01 Season and The Trip to Bountiful, featuring Lois Smith in an award-winning performance, in the 2005-06 Season. During the 2009-10 Season, Signature co-produced the world premiere of the three-part The Orphans' Home Cycle with Hartford Stage, directed by Michael Wilson. Signature remains committed to celebrating Horton's significant contributions and is thrilled that this season's production of The Old Friends reunites Signature with longtime collaborators HAllie Foote, Lois Smith and Michael Wilson.

Betty Buckley, who has been called "The Voice of Broadway," is one of theater's most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She most recently was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame for 2012.

Betty Buckley won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. She received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical for her performance as Hesione in Triumph of Love, and an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber'sSunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway.

Her other Broadway credits include 1776, Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie. Off-Broadway credits include White's Lies, Lincoln Center's Elegies, the original NYSF production of Edwin Drood, The Eros Trilogy and Juno Swans. Regional credits include Gypsy, Threepenny Opera, Camino Real, Buffalo Gal and Arsenic and Old Lace. She starred in the London production of Dear World in 2013 and Promises, Promises.

She co-starred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening released in June 2008. Other films include her debut in Brian de Palma's screen version of Stephen King's Carrie, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski's Frantic, Woody Allen's Another Woman and Lawrence Kasden's Wyatt Earp.

On television, Buckley appeared in "The Pacific" for HBO and on the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006 and 1983. She also starred for three seasons in the HBO series "Oz" and as Abby Bradford in the hit series "Eight is Enough". She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television series, miniseries and films for television including "Evergreen," "Roses for the Rich," the CBS series "Without a Trace," "Law & Order: SVU" for NBC, and ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars."

Buckley has recorded 15 CD's, among them Bootleg: Boardmixes From The Road, Quintessence and Betty Buckley 1967 and the Grammy Nominated Stars and the Moon, Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar. Her newest CD Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway was released by Palmetto Records in August 2012. The CD Ghostlight produced by T Bone Burnett will be released in 2014 also on Palmetto Records.

She received her second Grammy Nomination for the audio book The Diaries of Adam and Eve.

Michael Wilson is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful at the Sondheim Theater. Over a two-decade collaboration with Mr. Foote, Wilson directed the Tony-nominated Dividing The Estate(Lincoln Center Theater at the Booth), the premieres of The Carpetbagger's Children (LCT), The Day Emily Married (Primary Stages),The Death of Papa (Hartford Stage) and The Orphans' Home Cycle (Signature Theater), for which he received 2010 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Other Broadway: Gore Vidal's The Best Man; Enchanted April; Old Acquaintance. Off Broadway: Numerous plays, including last season's acclaimed revival of Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly for Roundabout. International: Tony Kushner's Angels in America (Venice Biennale). He has directed at our nation's major theaters, including Hartford Stage, where he was Artistic Director from 1998 to 2011.

Signature Theatre exists to honor and celebrate the playwright. Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwright's body of work, and during this journey, the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process. By championing in-depth explorations of a playwright's body of work, Signature delivers an intimate and immersive journey into the playwright's singular vision.

Signature serves its mission through its permanent home at The Pershing Square Signature Center, a three-theatre facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature's three distinct playwrights' residencies and foster a cultural community. At the Center, opened in January 2012, Signature continues its founding Playwright-in-Residence model as Residency One, a first-of-its-kind, intensive exploration of a single writer's body of work. Residency Five, the only program of its kind, was launched at the Center to support multiple playwrights as they build bodies of work by guaranteeing each writer three productions over a five-year period. The Legacy Program, launched during Signature's 10th Anniversary, invites writers from both residencies back for productions of premiere or earlier plays.

The Pershing Square Signature Center is a major contribution to New York City's cultural landscape and provides a venue for cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theatres, the Center features a Studio Theatre, rehearsal studio, and a public café, bar and bookstore. Through the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, Signature has also made an unprecedented commitment to making its productions accessible by underwriting the cost of initial run tickets, currently priced at $25, through 2031.

Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, Maria Irene Fornes, Athol Fugard, John Guare, Bill Irwin, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson, and a season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company. Signature's current Residency One playwright is David Henry Hwang; current Residency Five playwrights are Annie Baker, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan, and ReGina Taylor; and the current Legacy Playwrights are Horton Foote and August Wilson. Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel Awards, Obie Awards, Drama Desk Awards, and AUDELCO Awards, among many other distinctions. For more information, please visit signaturetheatre.org.

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