Three-time Tony winner Nathan Lane has been named this year's artistic honoree for the Westport Country Playhouse Gala, which will be held October 4. The annual benefit will also pay tribute to the Playhouse’s 95 seasons, and present a leadership award to former co-artistic director Anne Keefe. 

The one-night-only fundraiser will include appearances by many of Lane's former co-stars, including host Danny Burstein and performers Nikki Renée Daniels, Santino Fontana, Cady Huffman, Christine Pedi, and Krysta Rodriguez. 

Anne Keefe will also receive the 2025 Playhouse Leadership Award for her involvement with the Westport Country Playhouse since 1973. Keefe was part of the original group who in 1999 gathered to renovate the Playhouse. She served as the Playhouse's artistic director with Joanne Woodward in 2008 and as associate artistic director from 2000 to 2006, also with Woodward, co-directing David Copperfield in 2005. Keefe initiated and curated the Playhouse’s Script in Hand playreading series, and currently serves on the board of trustees.

“Honoring Annie Keefe and Nathan Lane at this year’s gala is especially meaningful, as they are both dear friends to each other as well as to the Playhouse,” said artistic director Mark Shanahan in a statement. “Nathan Lane is, of course, one of the American theatre’s great talents, and Annie Keefe has long been one of the beating hearts of the Playhouse, and someone to whom we all owe so much.”

The evening’s schedule begins at 5:30 PM with a sold-out pre-show reception, followed by a 7 PM curtain with live auction, presentation of honorees, and performance, and concludes with a 9 p.m. after-party in the Lucille Lortel White Barn Center.

For more information, visit WestportPlayhouse.org.