Lorraine Bracco Joins Matthew Broderick For Hamptons All-Star Benefit

EAST HAMPTON, NY — It will be a dream team of actors hitting the stage at Guild Hall Sunday night. Lorraine Bracco, best known to TV audiences for her role in The Sopranos, will be hosting the staged reading of a new project by Emmy-nominated writer Eugene Pack.

Along with host Bracco, the other stars of the night are Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Chloe Dirksen, Tovah Feldshuh, Geraldine Hughes, Carol Kane, Richard Kind, Treat Williams and Dayle Reyfel.

The project, The Poets of Amityville, is a comedy about an adult education poetry class and a potential trip to Ireland.

A portion of the proceeds from the reading will benefit The Felix Organization, which is a group very close to Bracco’s heart. The organization provides inspiring opportunities for children in the foster care system.

“I do anything I can to help those kids,” Bracco, who sits on The Felix Organization’s advisory board, told Patch in an interview this week.

Guild Hall is an intimate setting compared to other venues Bracco has performed in, but the actress says size doesn't matter. “I enjoy theater in any size space. It’s alive anywhere," she said.

That feeling of being alive on stage is what draws Bracco, who most recently appeared on Broadway as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, to theater work. “You have to be present, in the moment,” she said.

The Poets of Amityville is a comedy, a genre that Bracco has been adept at since her earliest theater memory. When she was in high school she played the maid in Arsenic and Old Lace, and Bracco said: “I gave her a big stage exit wiggle that got a huge laugh.”

Also known for her TV roles, she said there are “no re-takes” during live performances.

Performing at Guild Hall is something Bracco looks forward to, after her stint on Broadway. “The audiences are a bit more relaxed. They come for a good time.”

Bracco loves that Guild Hall is keeping theater vibrant on the East End. “There's so much talent out here in the Hamptons. It would be a shame not to showcase it as often as possible — it's a goldmine of talent.”

While serious about her work and the talent of her co-stars, Bracco exited the interview just as she began her acting career, with a comedic one-liner. When asked how living in the Hamptons inspires her work, she joked: “I look around and see how much I have to work to pay for it.”

Photo by Mark Schafer.