Lauren Ambrose & Joan Allen Join Forces for Daughter of the Queen of Sheba, One-Night-Only Benefit Reading

Before she becomes the “greatest star” in Broadway’s Funny Girl, Lauren Ambrose is teaming up with Tony winner Joan Allen for a one-night-only staged reading of Daughter of the Queen of Sheba on October 17. The performance, to be held at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, will benefit Fountain House, an internationally recognized organization dedicated to improving the lives of people living with mental illness. Daniel Barnz will direct.

Daughter of the Queen of Sheba is the acclaimed memoir by NPR host Jacki Lyden that recounts her experience growing up with a colorful and dramatic mother living with manic depression. Lyden collaborated with screenwriter Karen Croner to create the script.

Allen won a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in Burn This. Her other Broadway credits include The Heidi Chronicles and Impressionism. She is a three-time Oscar nominee, for her roles in Nixon, The Crucible and The Contender. She has also appeared on screen in The Ice Storm, Face/Off, Pleasantville, The Notebook, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. 

Ambrose is best known as Claire Fisher on TV's Six Feet Under, a role that earned her two Emmy nominations. She has appeared on Broadway in Awake and Sing! and Exit the King, and will soon return as Fanny Brice in the highly anticipated revival of Funny Girl. Her other stage credits include Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park productions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet Among her TV and film credits are Can't Hardly Wait, Torchwood, Psycho Beach Party, The Return of Jezebel James, Diggers, Party of Five and Where the Wild Things Are.