Laura Benanti and Andrew McCarthy to Star in Benefit Reading of Plaza Suite

Laura Benanti and Andrew McCarthy will star in a benefit reading of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite at the High School for the Humanities (351 West 18th Street) at 8pm on Monday, September 19. John Lavelle will co-star, and Jonathan Ross will direct the performance.

Produced by Jamie McGonnigal and Suzy Meyers, the reading will benefit Opening Act, a non-profit organization that provides free after-school theater programming to New York City’s most underserved public high schools.

Benanti received Tony Award nominations for her performances in Swing and Into the Woods. She has also appeared on Broadway in Nine, The Violet Hour, and The Sound of Music, and is slated to star in the new musical The Wedding Singer. She can currently be seen on TV in the FX series Starved.

McCarthy has appeared on Broadway in Side Man and The Boys of Winter, and was recently seen Off-Broadway in Fat Pig. His many film credits include St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink. He is a co-star of the new NBC-TV drama E-Ring, which will begin airing this fall.

Plaza Suite, a trio of one-act plays set in the same hotel room, opened on Broadway in 1968 and played nearly 1,100 performances. The original production starred Maureen Stapleton and George C. Scott; the 1971 film version starred Stapleton, Walter Matthau, Lee Grant, and Barbara Harris; and the 1987 TV version starred Carol Burnett, Dabney Coleman, Hal Holbrook, and Richard Crenna.

Tickets to the September 19 reading are priced from $10 to $100. For more information, visit www.openingactnewyork.org.