The Colonial Theatre presents Betty Buckley: Broadway by Request 8/11

Betty Buckley will bring her show Broadway by Request to the Colonial on August 11 at 7:30PM. Tickets are $45 and $25 and can be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street Monday-Friday 10AM-5PM, performance Saturdays 10AM-2PM, by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at www.thecolonialtheatre.org.

Betty Buckley weaves amusing stories and anecdotes with songs from her Broadway songbook in Broadway by Request. Winner of the coveted Tony Award for her portrayal of Grizabella the Glamour Cat, in the original Broadway cast of CATS, Buckley is one of only a handful of women who can be referred to as A real BROADWAY star and a true legend. Buckley is best known on television for her role as Abby Bradford in the hit series Eight is Enough.

Betty Buckley 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 interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset 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 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 and Buffalo Gal. She starred in the London production of Promises, Promises.

She most recently 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 on the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors. She has 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, Melrose Place, the CBS series Without A Trace,Law & Order: SVU for NBC and the HBO series The Pacific.

Buckley has recorded 11 CD's, among them Quintessence, Betty Buckley 1967 and the Grammy Nominated Stars and the Moon: Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar.

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

For over thirty-seven years Ms. Buckley has been a teacher of scene study and song interpretation, giving workshops in Manhattan and various universities and performing arts conservatories around the country. She has been a faculty member in the theatre department of the University of Texas at Arlington, the Terry Schreiber Acting School in New York City and currently in Fort Worth, TX.

In April of 2009, Ms. Buckley received the Texas Medal of Arts Award for Theater and was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2007.

"Broadway by Request mixes a changing assortment of songs from singer's 40-year professional career with unfailingly amusing stories and anecdotes, giving us the best of Betty Buckley indeed. Along with her singing, Buckley demonstrates a friendly, easygoing and candid storytelling style. What makes the format work so well is that it forces Buckley to sing in unvarnished fashion. The winning element to the program, though, is that Buckley spends half the time talking directly, openly, and humorously to the patrons..."-New York Post

"Buckley plowed through her theatrical repertoire with her typical vocal power and passion. But what makes the show such a treat are not necessarily the song selections-many of them have long been staples of her act-but the accompanying backstage anecdotes. ....Of being hired for CATS, she recalled that she was told that her ‘job assignment was to stop the show.' She did it for the umpteenth time again this night, performing "Memory" with a haunting immediacy that well demonstrated the reasons for her career longevity." -Playbill

Tickets for the performance are $45 and $25 and can be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street Monday-Friday 10AM-5PM, performance Saturdays 10AM-2PM, by calling (413) 997-4444

Photo credit: Monica Simoes

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