Photo Flash: Katie Thompson, Bill Connington and More in PRIVATE LIVES Reading

Katie Thompson, star of last season's GIANT, and Bill Connington, star of the upcoming indy feature film ZOMBIE, joined forces for the first time in a glittering evening in the white and gold-gilded ballroom of a private Eastside club, that served as the backdrop to the reading of PRIVATE LIVES by theatrical legend Noel Coward. They were joined by rising cabaret star Jennifer Sheehan, and Broadway's Brian Charles Rooney on Wednesday, February 12th. The evening was produced by Razors Edge Productions. BroadwayWorld has photos below!

Katie Thompson is a singer-songwriter and actor who made a splash in the musical GIANT by John LaChuisa at the Public Theater, and in BIG FISH by Andrew Lippa in Chicago. She has performed in exclusive New York clubs including Birdland, the Gershwin Theater on Broadway, and at the White House. Her music has been featured on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, and has appeared on television on 30 ROCK and STAGE MOM.

Bill Connington adapted the Joyce Carol Oates novella ZOMBIE into a play he performed in three separate productions in New York, and as well as adapting the property into a short film that has been screened at eighteen film festivals. Both won several awards. He is currently in pre-production to shoot an indy feature film of ZOMBIE in autumn 2014. He has appeared in theater, TV and indy film. Bill is teaching this semester at the Yale School of Drama.

Jennifer Sheehan has appeared in New York in the RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, as well as WHITE CHRISTMAS out of town. A singer recognized for her stylings of the Great American Songbook, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Café Carlyle, Feinstein's at the Regency, 54 Below, Caramoor and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

Brian Charles Rooney has appeared on Broadway in THE THREEPENNY OPERA and CAMELOT IN CONCERT. He has also toured in WEST SIDE STORY and THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLYOD WEBBER, as well as in THE BALLAD OF BONNIE AND CLYDE. Brian has appeared in concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, Town Hall and Symphony Space.

Private Lives is considered Coward's most enduring sophisticated comedy. A long line of well-known actors and stars have wanted to "get their teeth" into the fascinating characters, and world of the play in which morality is turned upside down. Society's conventions are considered boring, and somewhat self-involved behavior is rewarded. Brittle and satiric on the surface, the play plums surprising emotional depth. Its theme is enduring love, despite personal differences.

Noel Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and producer. Author of Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, Blithe Spirit, the film Brief Encounter, as well as autobiographies. He was one of the most successful English dramatists and actors. Carrying on the tradition of "high comedy" from the Restoration period, and Oscar Wilde, Coward developed his own particular style based on wit, "jagged sophistication", chic, and surprising sentiment.