Patti LuPone

Jewish Community Centers of Chicago (JCC) will hold its annual Benefit Concert, featuring Tony Award-winning actress and Broadway sensation Patti LuPone – in her triumphant one-woman show, Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda – with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Center, 220 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago

"JCC is proud to present Patti LuPone at this year's benefit gala." says Michael Srulovitz, General Chairman of the November 14th event. "Miss LuPone is a true Broadway legend with undeniable vocal prowess. We look forward to an unforgettable evening of musical excellence while generating significant funds for the JCC."

The JCC's Annual Benefit Concert is an integral component of its annual fundraising campaign that supports the diverse programs and services offered at 19 metropolitan Chicago area sites. JCC has a history of more than 100 years of delivering life-enriching programs and services that serve more than 35,000 people more than 1.4 million times each year within the Chicagoland community.

"The funds raised through this year's concert will ensure that these services are available for people of all ages and all life stages throughout the community. Proceeds will also ensure access to programs for persons in need – people who benefit from all we do but could not otherwise afford to pay," notes Dr. Edward Atkins, Vice Chairman of the Benefit Campaign.

Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone recently concluded a critically acclaimed run in John Doyle's smash hit Broadway production of Sweeney Todd as the pie-maker Mrs. Lovett. Miss LuPone made her debut with the New York Philharmonic in that same role in a concert version of the Stephen Sondheim musical, before reprising her performance with the San Francisco Symphony, at the Ravinia Festival and on the Emmy Award-winning PBS “Great Performances” telecast.

While appearing in Sweeney Todd, Miss LuPone went into a recording studio to record her latest solo CD The Lady With The Torch for Ghostlight Records. Based on her latest sold-out Carnegie Hall concert which was conceived and directed by Scott Wittman, The Lady With The Torch features musical direction by Chris Fenwick and a 10-piece band performing an eclectic selection of torch songs, orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick. She also returned to the Ravinia Festival where, during a three-week break from Sweeney Todd, she starred in the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim musical Gypsy, garnering unanimous rave reviews for her performance as Mama Rose.

This fall she will star in the world premiere of composer Jake Heggie's new opera To Hell and Back for San Francisco's Baroque Philharmonic Orchestra and in January will make her debut with the Los Angeles Opera in its new production of Kurt Weill's Mahagonny.

Last year Patti LuPone starred in the title role in the Marc Blitzstein's Regina, a musical version of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center and reprised her critically acclaimed performance of Fosca in a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, starring with Audra McDonald and Michael Cerveris for Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series, which was also broadcast on PBS' Live From Lincoln Center. On television, in addition to the Passion broadcast, she was featured, as herself, on the hit NBC comedy series Will & Grace and on the PBS “Great Performances” telecast of the NY Philharmonic's concert production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide.

Pattie LuPone's 2006 JCC benefit performance will feature the triumphant solo concert – Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda – which made its triumphant debut at New York's Carnegie Hall garnering a sold-out encore performance.

After completing her training with the first class of the Drama Division of New York's Juilliard School, she began her career as a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company playing a variety of leading roles, both on and off-Broadway and on tour throughout the United States. Her subsequent New York dramatic credits include Dario Fo's Accidental Death of An Anarchist; David Mamet's The Water Engine, and Israel Horovitz' Stage Directions.

Patti LuPone's memorable performances on the New York musical stage include Vera Simpson in the City Center Encores! production of Pal Joey, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, (1988 Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination, Best Actress in a Musical), The Cradle Will Rock, Nancy in Oliver!, Evita (1980 Tony and Drama Desk Awards - Best Actress in a Musical), Working and Rosamund in The Robber Bridegroom (1976 Tony and Drama Desk Award nomination - Best Featured Actress in a Musical).

In London, she created the role of Fantine in the RSC production of Les Misérables, a role she subsequently played on the West End. For that performance, as well as the reprise of her performance in the London production of The Cradle Will Rock, she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Miss LuPone created the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1994 Olivier nomination - Best Actress in A Musical), and recreated her Broadway performance of Maria Callas in the West End production of Master Class.

Jewish Community Centers of Chicago was founded in 1903 to serve the Chicago area's growing population of Jewish immigrants on the West Side. Today – over one hundred years and six generations later – this vibrant social service agency is nationally recognized for its wide array of contemporary life-enriching programs and services that reach 35,000 persons of all ages and all life stages more than 1.4 million times a year. Built on a strong foundation of Jewish values, JCC's cultural, educational, social and recreational programs and services are offered through four metropolitan regions that include seven full-service community centers and their off-site satellite locations, eleven early childhood learning sites, eight day camp sites, including the renowned “Z” Frank Apachi Day Camp in Northbrook, Illinois and Camp Chi, an overnight camp located in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. JCC administers services for individuals in need at the Dina and Eli Field EZRA Multi-Service Center in Chicago's Uptown community and at the Singer Transitional Residence and provides yet additional services and referrals through Project Chesed. Scholarship assistance for program and membership fees is available to those whose economic resources would otherwise preclude their participation. JCC's programs and services are available to members of the broad and diverse metropolitan Chicago community, without regard to race, creed, religion, ethnic origin, gender or age.

Tickets for the November 14th Benefit Concert are available at a variety of prices and seating locations, including: main floor: $350, $275 and $175 per ticket; balcony seating: $200, $150 and $95 per ticket; and gallery seating: $55 per ticket. Theater boxes of six seats are available for $3,000 per box. For more information regarding JCC and its Benefit Concert, please call JCC at (312) 357-4700.