Kinnelon's Benanti to Appear in Live 'The Sound of Music' Broadcast

Laura Benanti, Kinnelon’s First Lady of the Stage, will appear in a live broadcast of “The Sound of Music” on Thursday.

The musical production is the first of its kind to be broadcast on live TV in more than 50 years.

Benanti, 34, plays Baroness Elsa Schraeder. This is not the first time she has appeared in a production of the musical. At 19, she appeared in the 1999 “Sound of Music” revival on Broadway.

Benanti won a Tony Award for playing Gypsy Rose Lee in the 2008 Broadway revivial of “Gypsy.”

She appeared in the three-episode series “The Playboy Club” and in a recurring role in Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie.”  She starred last season in “Go On” with Matthew Perry.

Benanti will sing two songs “No Way to Stop It” and “How Can Love Survive?”; those songs were cut from the 1965 movie.

“The Sound of Music Live!” will be broadcast on NBC on Thursday beginning at 8 p.m.  It will be three hours long. It will be released on home video Dec. 17. The cast recorded an album of the performances. It was released on Tuesday.