The Westport Country Playhouse has announced that Tony-nominated actress Kelli O’Hara of Westport, currently winning rave reviews for role in Broadway’s “The King and I,” will be honored at its annual fundraiser in September.

Kelli O’Hara, Tony-nominated actress and Westport mother of three, will be honored on Sept. 21. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

The event, “Something Wonderful:  A Gala Evening Celebrating Kelli O’Hara,” will take place on Monday, Sept. 21.

“I am thrilled to be able to announce our very special gala honoree, the toast of Broadway and one of its most beautiful and talented leading ladies,” said Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director. 

“She brings new luster to the classic, incredibly varied and iconic roles of such hits as ‘South Pacific’ and ‘Pajama Game,’ as well as her current triumph in ‘The King and I.’ The shimmering beauty of her voice, her charisma and style combine to make her a one-of-a-kind, gold-plated star—- Broadway hasn’t experienced this combination for decades. How lucky we will be to celebrate her for one very special night only.”

By Susan Granger

Wow! Director/writer/producer George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action adventure “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a blast!

While wearily haunted ex-cop Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is the titular hero, hunted in the toxic, dystopian Wasteland, Charlize Theron delivers a powerhouse performance as Imperator Furiosa, the most exciting sci-fi protagonist since Ellen Ripley (“Alien”).

As George Miller explains, “What looks like testosterone-fueled summer escape is actually a badass feminist action flick. The men do the damage but the women restore humanity.”

Furiosa is a War Rig operator who’s determined to wreak revenge for her past suffering by smuggling the prized Five Wives (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keogh, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton) of the tyrannical warlord, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), to safety in the Green Place.

The Frieze New York 2015 Art Fair opens Thursday at New York’s Randall’s Island. The fourth edition of the fair brings together more than 190 of the world’s leading contemporary galleries to the island’s festive surroundings. Helen Klisser During, artistic director of the Westport Arts Center and WestportNow contributing photographer, was among VIP guests today getting a preview. The show runs through Sunday. For ticket information, click here. Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com

Car buffs are gearing up for the first Concours d’Caffeine classic car show in Westport’s Saugatuck area on Sunday.

Winners lined up at the 2011 Fairfield County Concours d’Elegance at Westport’s Fairfield County Hunt Club. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNow.com

The 8 to 11 a.m event is a mini-version of the Concours d’Elegance returning to Westport after a four-year absence. It is co-sponsored by the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce (WWCC) and Fairfield-based Concours Consulting Partners.

Held on Railroad Place, the gathering of classic and modern day vehicles will underscore Connecticut’s role in automotive history, as well as Saugatuck’s, according to event organizers. The Board of Selectmen approved the plans on April 8. (See WestportNow April 8, 2015)

Following the event, participants are set to head out on a rally around Fairfield County, ending up in Redding.

Tony Award-nominated playwright David Ives (r) was the guest today at the Westport Country Playhouse’s Sunday Symposium following a 3 p.m. performance of his comedy, “The Liar.” They discussed his adaptation of the play from the 17th century comedy by Pierre Cornelle. “My main character in ‘The Liar’ makes up his life as he goes along which is the way I live,” Ives said. He added, “There was a period of time when I fell in love with iambic pentameter. I would translate everything I saw in to iambic pentameter.” Ives said he likes to use puns in his work. “I can tell if the audience is listening if they don’t groan,” he said. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

By James Lomuscio

Westporter Lynsey Addario, the 1991 Staples High School graduate whose passion for photography began at age 8 with a hand-me-down camera, later becoming an award-winning combat zone photojournalist in the Middle East and Africa—even surviving a 2011 Libyan capture and sustained beatings—was honored tonight at the Westport Library’s BOOKED for the Evening gala.

Lynsey Addario acccepts her BOOKED for the Evening award tonight from Maxine Bleiweis, Library executive director, and Michael Guthman, board president. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com

Family, friends and colleagues were among the hundreds who packed the library’s main floor to celebrate the local woman who donned a burka after the Sept. 11 attacks to penetrate the closed world of Taliban women, photographing and interviewing them, and later oppressed women in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Dafur and Iraq.

Ivan Watson, CNN senior international correspondent who grew up locally, was one of the many who praised Addario’s courage and commitment to exposing human rights violations and the horrors of war.

“In Baghdad and other conflict zones, during the day we would witness carnage that continues to leave deep emotional scars,” Watson said in a tribute video by Westport filmmaker Doug Tirola.

Scenes from tonight’s Westport Library BOOKED for the Evening gala honoring Westport award-winning photographer Lynsey Addario. Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com

More scenes from tonight’s BOOKED for the Evening honoring Lynsey Addario. Lynn U. Miller for WestportNow.com

Scenes from tonight’s opening reception for the Westport Arts Center’s SOLOS 2015 member show. It continues until June 27. Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com and contributed photos

By Susan Granger

One of the year’s most dazzling documentaries, the Oscar-nominated “Salt of the Earth” chronicles the work of humanistic photographer Sabastiao Salgado –- as seen through the eyes of his son, Juliano, and filmmaker Wim Wenders.

This unique visual odyssey into “the heart of darkness” begins as Salgado comments on one of his most recognized images, a shot of 50,000 men in the vast Serra Pelada gold mine that formed part of the indigenous “Workers: Archeology of the Industrial Age” series (1993).

Born in the Brazilian mining town of Minas Gerais, Salgado studied economics, working with the World Bank in France in 1969—after the political unrest of Brazil’s military coup. Seeking artistic fulfillment, he left for Niger in 1973, when he launched his concept of picturing nobility amid suffering and deprivation.

“We humans are a terrible animal; we are extremely violent,” Salgado notes. “Our history is a history of war; it’s an endless story.”