‘Sopranos’ star and Tony Award winner to appear in benefit reading for Hudson Theatre Works

Vincent Pastore, best-known for portraying Salvatore ‘Big Pussy’ Bonpensiero on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” and Karen Ziemba, who won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Susan Stroman’s “Contact,” will join a cast of seven other actors in two readings of “40 C.P.S.,” by late Hoboken playwright Louis LaRusso.
The readings are to benefit the Hudson Theatre Works, the Hudson area’s new professional-level theatre company. These events will take place on Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21, at 7 p.m. at the Burchard Auditorium on the Stevens Institute of Technology campus. The auditorium is located at Sixth and River streets in Hoboken. Admission is $25.00.
Also taking part will be Maureen Van Zandt, Robert Funaro, Dan Grimaldi, Anthony J. Ribustello, Ernie Mingione, James Georgiades, and Art Pasquale, many of who were either regulars or made appearances on the HBO hit series.
The theme of “40 C.P.S.” is the relationship between fathers and sons. The work is loosely based on the playwright’s friendship with seven-time Tony award-winning director/choreographer Michael Bennett, best known for “A Chorus Line” and “Dreamgirls.”
Frank Licato, a “talented director” (New York Times) whose work has been called “flawless” by the Hollywood Insider, is a longtime Weehawken resident. He previously directed an off-Broadway production of LaRusso’s “Lamppost Reunion” using many of the actors who will be featured in this reading.
Hudson Theatre Works was founded by New Jersey residents Frank Licato, Gregory Erbach, and Karen Brady. It is committed to ensemble collaboration as well as artistic risk through its work with its permanent company, guest artists, partner institutions and the surrounding community. It will be dedicated to a “rugged” aesthetic and will seek to tell stories, new and old, classic and contemporary, which reflect our lives, relationships and world today.
Hudson Theatre Works’ primary focus is in bringing a living theatre community to the area of Hudson and North Jersey through performance, outreach and theatre arts instruction.
While tickets are available at the door, reservations are strongly recommended. Seating is general admission. For further information, or to make reservations, please call (201) 656-2240.