Laura Benanti to Headline 2014 Globe Gala, SUMMER SPLENDOR, This Weekend

The Old Globe will host the 2014 Globe Gala on Saturday, July 26 in support of the theatre's education and artistic programs. The annual event will feature a one-night-only performance by Broadway veteran and Tony Award winner Laura Benanti (Gypsy, Into the Woods, NBC's The Sound of Music Live!, "The Good Wife," "Go On"), based on her smash hit New York cabaret (and new CD) In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention. Nina Doede, Deni Jacobs, and Sheryl White serve as Co-Chairs of the 2014 Globe Gala. Leading underwriters include Audrey Geisel, Darlene Marcos Shiley, Conrad Prebys and Debra Turner, and Sheryl and Harvey White.

The black-tie event will begin with a reception on the Globe's Copley Plaza, followed by Benanti's performance on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. After the performance, dinner and dancing to the music of the 13-piece dance band Midnight Special will commence on the Globe's Copley Plaza. The Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, led by new Executive Chef Terry Guise, will cater the reception and dinner, and valet parking is included in the price of the ticket.

Tickets are $750 (regular seating) and $1,000 (VIP seating) each and include the reception, performance, dinner, and dancing. Tables are also available starting at $7,500. Underwriting levels, which include tickets for the Gala, begin at $4,500 per couple. To purchase tickets or a table or to become an underwriter, contact Eileen Prisby, Events Manager, at (619) 231-1941 x2303 or eprisby@TheOldGlobe.org.

Laura Benanti has brought her unique abilities to comedies, dramas, and musicals since she took Broadway by storm at the age of 18. She received a Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Tony Award nomination for her starring role in the Broadway production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown for Lincoln Center Theater, where she also starred in Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room, or the vibrator play. Benanti also demonstrated her comic flair in The Public Theater's production of Christopher Durang's Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. Benanti earned the 2008 Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her revelatory portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy opposite Patti LuPone and directed by Arthur Laurents. Her other Broadway roles include her Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated performance of Cinderella in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods and her sultry Tony-nominated turn in Swing! She also starred opposite Antonio Banderas as his muse in the celebrated revival of Nine. Benanti began her multifaceted career as Maria in The Sound of Music opposite Richard Chamberlain. Most recently, she starred in the City Center Encores! revival of Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella. Her other distinguished theater performances include Perdita in The Winter's Tale at Williamstown Theatre Festival opposite Kate Burton, Anne in A Little Night Music at LA Opera opposite Victor Garber, and Eileen in Wonderful Town at City Center Encores! opposite Donna Murphy. Benanti recently completed a week-long engagement at the popular New York cabaret club 54 Below, for which The New York Times hailed her as a "supremely confident" performer whose "bright, full soprano, with its semioperatic heft, can go almost anywhere." In September 2013, she released her debut album, In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention: Live at 54 Below on Broadway Records, to ecstatic reviews. Benanti recently received raves for her performance as Elsa Schraeder in NBC's The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood. She will soon be seen on "The Good Wife" and recur on HBO's "Nurse Jackie." Recently she starred in the NBC series "The Playboy Club" and "Go On" opposite Matthew Perry. Her other television roles include co-starring on "Starved," recurring roles on "Royal Pains," "The Big C," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," and "Eli Stone," and guest starring on "Elementary" and "Life on Mars." Benanti can be seen in the films Take the Lead and Meskada. She currently resides in Manhattan.

The Old Globe is located in San Diego's Balboa Park at 1363 Old Globe Way. There are numerous free parking lots available throughout the park. Guests may also be dropped off in front of the Mingei International Museum. The Balboa Park valet is also available during performances ($12), located in front of the Japanese Friendship Garden. For additional parking information visit www.BalboaPark.org. For directions and up-to-date information, please visit www.TheOldGlobe.org/Directions.

To look up online or GPS directions to The Old Globe, please do not use the Delivery Address above. There is only a 10-minute zone at that physical address. For GPS users, please click here for the map coordinates, and here for written directions to The Old Globe and nearby parking in Balboa Park.

2013-2014 SEASON CALENDAR: Othello (6/22-7/27), Into the Woods (7/12-8/10), Quartet (7/25-8/24), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (8/10-9/14).

2014-2015 SEASON CALENDAR: Bright Star (9/13-11/2/14), The Royale (10/4-11/2), Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (11/15-12/27), Murder for Two (1/24/15-3/1), The Twenty-Seventh Man (2/14-3/15), The White Snake (3/21-4/26), Buyer & Cellar (4/4-5/3), Arms and the Man (5/9-6/14), Rich Girl (5/23-6/21).

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country's leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution for over 75 years. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Michael G. Murphy, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 14 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre's education and community programs. Numerous world premieres such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, A Catered Affair, and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

Photo courtesy of The Old Globe.

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