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Actress and Singer Betty Buckley Joins SummerStage Lineup at Hartford Stage 

Broadway by Request Plays July 8 - 11,
Joining Previously Announced THWAK! and Yesterdays

 

May 5, 2009/Hartford, CT ... The stars of summer will shine even brighter this July as Hartford Stage adds Broadway legend Betty Buckley to it sizzling SummerStage lineup of comedy and music.  Buckley's cabaret show, Broadway by Request, will play five performances at the Tony Award-winning theatre (Michael Wilson, Artistic Director; Michael Stotts, Managing Director) from July 8 - 11.  SummerStage continues July 15 - August 2 with the Umbilical Brothers in the hysterical physical comedy THWAK! and August 15 - 22 with jazz star Vanessa Rubin as Billie Holiday in Yesterdays - An Evening with Billie Holiday

In Broadway by Request, the multi-talented Betty Buckley, renowned for her work in theatre, film, and television brings her spectacular cabaret act to Hartford Stage for five performances only.  The audience suggests the songs and Betty does the rest, singing hit after hit from Broadway and beyond, spiced up with touching, amusing, and inspiring anecdotes from her legendary career. 

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 interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway.

Ms. Buckley has previously appeared at Hartford Stage in Camino Real, directed by Michael Wilson.  Additional Broadway credits include 1776, Pippen, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie. Off-Broadway credits include Lincoln Center's Elegies, The Eros Trilogy and Juno Swans.  Regional credits include Gypsy, Threepenny Opera, and Buffalo Gal.     

In film, she most recently starred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, released in June 2008.  Her other film appearances include her debut in Brian de Palma'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 in the HBO series Oz and as Abby Bradford in the hit series Eight is Enough. She has received two Emmy Nominations.

Buckley has completed 11 CDs, among them Quintessence and 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-five 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.

Tickets for the limited engagement of Broadway by Request are $30 - $75; intimate cabaret seating with table service is available.  Please note that EZ Tix cannot be used to book tickets for Broadway by Request.  Hartford Stage has wheelchair accessible seating, assistive listening devices and other amenities.  For more information, please call the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151 or visit www.hartfordstage.org.  Hartford Stage is located at 50 Church Street in downtown Hartford with parking located in the MAT Garage, directly adjacent to the theatre.  The theatre is easily accessible from I-84 and I-91.

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