A rendering of the new Westport Country Playhouse.

Joanne Woodward, artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse.

At last year’s benefit: Joanne Woodward, Suzanne Wright, Bob Wright, Sean Hayes, Laurie Lister, Paul Newman, Carole King, James Naughton and Christopher Plummer.

Top: Paul Newman as the stage manager in the Playhouse’s 2002 production of Our Town. Harry Connick, Jr. (center), and Robert Redford (bottom) will perform at the benefit.

The glamour quotient will be high on the evening of Thursday, October 14th, when Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Harry Connick, Jr., and Brian Williams headline a star-studded benefit at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich to support the renovation of the historic Westport Country Playhouse. The gala, co-chaired by Suzanne and Bob Wright of Fairfield and Laurie Lister and Judd Burstein of Westport, promises to be a highlight of the fall social season.

The event is part of the ongoing “Campaign for a New Era,” a $30.6-million comprehensive enterprise begun in 2000 to renovate and expand the not-for-profit Playhouse, create an endowment and support a broad range of artistic and educational initiatives.

To date, the project has raised $22.5 million. “This campaign is definitely on the right trajectory,” says Bob Wright, vice chairman and executive officer of GE and chairman and CEO of NBC. “But that means we’re in the most challenging phase, with the finish just in sight. As they say in the theatre, timing is everything — and this is the year we need to put a roof on the campaign, as well as a roof on the new Playhouse,” he explains.

This is the second year that the Wrights and the Lister-Bursteins are co-chairing this event. Last year’s benefit, which featured performances by actor Robin Williams and singer Carole King, raised an astonishing $2 million. This year the stakes are even higher. The Playhouse has been awarded a prestigious Kresge Foundation challenge grant. “Within this calendar year we have to raise $4.5 million and we have $3 million to go, says Elisabeth Saxe, Playhouse development director. “This event will have a significant impact on our achieving the Kresge challenge. And if we are successful, the foundation will award us $850,000 for the construction project.”

The campaign has been a true labor of love for both couples who are involved in numerous philanthropic and community activities. Suzanne Wright, motivated by her own love of theatre and a strong desire “to give something back to the community,” says continuity was also a crucial factor: “It is important for the next generation to see this and to really experience these great playwrights and actors.” Adds Burstein: “The Playhouse is one of the things that makes Westport such a special place in which to live. I felt it was very important to do anything I could to help preserve it.”

Aside from substantial personal financial commitments, both couples have devoted a tremendous amount of time and effort to planning these events. And this is the key to their success. “When you see people working so incredibly hard and committed to something, you want to join and match their efforts,” explains Lister. Christopher Plummer, the acclaimed actor who made his North American debut at the Playhouse and who serves on its artistic board, says that the Wrights and the Lister-Bursteins “know so well that to invest in such a project is to invest in the heart.”

A year in the planning, the co-chairmen have been aided by a very dedicated and well-connected dinner committee from Connecticut and New York. They have also received invaluable help from corporate chair Harvey Weinstein of Miramax as well as from NBC.

For the last 74 years, the Westport Country Playhouse has been a vital fixture in the Westport community while playing an important role in the history of American theatre. Founded in 1931 by the prominent theatre producers Lawrence Langner and his wife, Armina Marshall, and housed in a converted barn, “it has produced some of the best works of the most distinguished playwrights from Shaw and O’Neill to Miller and Mamet,” says Walter Bergen, a current board member and past board president. “The great American musical Oklahoma! had its start at Westport. Come Back Little Sheba made its world premiere here. Henry Fonda, Gene Kelly, Liza Minnelli and Jane Fonda made their stage debuts at the Play-house.” The list of performers, which reads like a veritable who’s who of the theatre world, also includes Tyrone Power, Alan Alda, Cicely Tyson, Tallulah Bankhead, Eileen Heckart and Robert Morse, to name just a few.

However, by 2000, the theatre was literally falling apart. The charming and beloved red barn had a leaking roof and antiquated building systems and theatre equipment, and it lacked the basic amenities, such as comfortable dressing rooms and adequate lobby and rehearsal space. Joanne Woodward, celebrated actress, director and longtime Westport resident, came to the rescue as the new artistic director of the Playhouse, undertaking the ambitious goals of expanding its artistic scope as well as renovating it for the first time in its history.

The artistic renaissance began almost immediately. “In the last four years, Joanne Woodward has expanded the vision of what the theatre can do and has raised the bar on the quality of production values,” said Anne Keefe, associate artistic director of the Playhouse. Woodward’s superstar stature attracted commensurate acting and directing talent resulting in such acclaimed productions as the 2002 revival of the Thornton Wilder classic Our Town, starring Paul Newman and directed by James Naughton. The play went on to have a successful Broadway run and an airing on Showtime and PBS. In 2003, the Playhouse presented a staging of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Jill Clayburgh, and the world premiere of David Wiltse’s The Good German. As Playhouse board president and 2004 Tony-nominated producer Elisabeth Morten explains, “In an increasingly difficult environment, important nonprofit theatres such as the Playhouse have a critical role in developing new and existing works, turning them into thought-provoking productions, and helping to give them a life beyond our stage.”

The physical renovation began in February of 2004 and is scheduled for completion by June 2005, just in time for the Playhouse’s 75th anniversary. Michael Farewell, partner in the architectural firm Ford Farewell Mills and Gatsch, Architects LLC who is leading the design effort, says that “The theatre has a significant history and the core of the building is being preserved for that dramatic history. Every effort has been made to build efficiently and with environmental responsibility. That has been Joanne’s vision.” The much-needed enhancements will include more comfortable seating, enhanced sight lines and acoustics, new orchestra pit, new lighting, stage rigging, heating and cooling systems and wheelchair accessibility. Additions will include new lobbies, dressing rooms, rehearsal facilities, concession areas, landscaping and restored garden. The renovations and additions will allow the Playhouse to expand its programming beyond its current June to September season to present year-round offerings such as music, dance and play readings. Educational initiatives, already a fundamental component of the Playhouse’s mission, will also be augmented.

The guiding force behind all these efforts remains Joanne Woodward. “It’s thrilling to see someone like Joanne Woodward take on this great challenge,” says James Naughton, honorary campaign chairman and distinguished actor and director. “With a person of her stature and taste giving so freely of her time, how can we not support the Playhouse?” The Newmans’ extraordinary record of philanthropy was also an inspiration to the benefit organizers. “We are honored to be with them,” says Suzanne Wright.

Woodward says it best: “Here in New England, you know, neighbors used to help each other raise their barns. That’s probably how our old barn came to be, back in 1830, in the sleepy hamlet of Westport. What we’re raising today is more than a barn, though – even more than a Playhouse. If we do this right, we will have recreated the Playhouse as a place where people come to raise their spirits, and raise their sights.