Thank you to those who joined us this year for Shea’s Black Tie Gala featuring a private performance by Tony Award-Winner Laura Benanti!
A Special Thank You to:
Gala Chair – Jon Dandes, Co-Chairs – Dr. Raul & Toni Vazquez
For any information about our Black Tie Gala contact our Development team by email or by phone at (716) 829-1170.
About Laura Benanti
Tony Award-winner and five-time Tony Award nominee LAURA BENANTI is a highly celebrated stage and screen actress, currently starring on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle in Lincoln Center’s revival of My Fair Lady. Before that, Benanti was most recently seen onstage in Steve Martin’s hit Broadway play, Meteor Shower.
Other Broadway roles include Amalia Balash in She Loves Me (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominee), Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy opposite Patti LuPone (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Tony nomination, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards winner), Into the Woods (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations), In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, The Wedding Singer, and Nine (starring Antonio Banderas). Other distinguished theater performances include Perdita in The Winter’s Tale at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Anne in A Little Night Music at the L.A. Opera, Eileen in Wonderful Town, and Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella, both for City Center Encores!
Her television credits include recurring and guest appearances in Younger, The Detour, Supergirl, Law & Order: SVU, Nashville, The Good Wife, Elementary, Nurse Jackie, The Big C, NBC’s The Sound of Music Live, and as First Lady Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Shea’s Annual Gala, sponsored in part by Ticketmaster, is the single most important fundraising event for Shea’s Performing Arts Center. All proceeds benefit the ongoing restoration, improvements and maintenance of Shea’s Buffalo Theatre as well as Shea’s Education Programming.
