The Playboy Club, Starring Tony Winner Laura Benanti, Added to NBC Slate

Broadway folks are hoppin’ over to network TV in droves. First, news broke that Broadway-themed Smash was picked up by NBC, and now comes word that Tony winner Laura Benanti’s new show, The Playboy Club, also received a greenlight from the network.

The show, which is set in the 1960s, follows a group of bunnies working at a Playboy club in Chicago. Benanti, who plays the established star of the club, told Broadway.com she thinks the series will make great television. "It was an incredible experience," she says of filming the pilot. "It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done, and I’m really proud of it. I think it’s really smart, interesting, dramatic and sexy…everything you’d want to see in a TV show."

A Tony winner for Gypsy, Benanti most recently appeared on Broadway in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, for which she received a Tony nomination. Her other Broadway credits include In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, The Wedding Singer, Nine, The Sound of Music and Tony-nominated performances in Into the Woods and Swing!.

In addition to donning bunny ears, Benanti will get a chance to show off her golden pipes on the The Playboy Club. "I get to sing!” she told Broadway.com. “I’m playing a performer in the [Playboy] club and the bunnies used to perform as well." The pilot features Benanti singing the classic songs "Sh-Boom" and "Chicago."

Benanti returns to Feinstein's at Loews Regency on May 22 with her solo show, "Let Me Entertain You."