LuPone and Benanti Won't Peform In 'Sondheim' Benefit

A spokeswoman for Patti Lu Pone has announced that due to illness, the actress will no longer be able to perform tonight in "Ladies Who Sing Sondheim".  According to reports Laura Benanti has also pulled out of the event as she is also under the weather. Raul Esparza, Barbara Walsh and Donna McKechnie have jumped in to the evenings benefit performance.

Tony Award-winning director John Doyle (Sweeney Todd, Company) will direct a benefit performance tonight, Monday, April 7, 2008 at 7PM in celebration of The Acting Company's 35th Anniversary. Angela Lansbury (Anyone Can Whistle, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd)  Debra Monk (Company), Pamela Myers (Company, Into the Woods), and Jenna Russell (Sunday in the Park with George) will still appear.  Mary Mitchell Campbell is Musical Director.

Lansbury chairs The Acting Company's Actors Advisory Board and has been involved since John Houseman and Margot Harley began the Company in 1972 with LuPone, Kevin Kline and other members of the first graduating class of Juilliard's Drama Division.  The gala event will be held at The Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street).  An intimate Patron's Dinner with the cast follows the performance.

Honored by the Tony Awards for Excellence in Theater, The Acting Company has produced 35 national tours of 129 classic and new plays adapted from American literary masterpieces and performed in 48 states and ten foreign countries.  Its current tour of Orson Welles' Moby Dick Rehearsed and Shakespeare's The Tempest arrives in New York for an Off-Broadway run in May.  The Company gives young classically trained actors the opportunity to perform the classics while bringing theater into under-served communities and into disadvantaged school systems.  Its alumni roster of over 300 includes Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Frances Conroy, Jesse L. Martin, Harriet Harris, Tom Hewitt, Keith David, Rainn Wilson and Jeffrey Wright.

Tickets at $100 and $250 are available through Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200.  Benefit tickets, including Performance only at $500 and Theater plus Patrons Dinner with the cast, are available from $750 and up through The Acting Company at 212-258-3111.

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