Rep Moves For 5/30/14: Primary Wave Music, WME, CAA, ICM

Agencies

CAA: Broadway star Laura Benanti is now repped by Joe Machota, Ryan Abboushi, Michael Katcher, Sonya Rosenfeld, Tracy Brennan and Steven Lafferty. Benanti most recently won raves for her performance as Rosebella in New York City Center’s Encores! revival of The Most Happy Fella. She also starred as Baroness Elsa Schräder in NBC’s 2013 live broadcast of The Sound of Music, opposite Carrie Underwood. Making her Broadway debut at age 18 in a 1998 revival of The Sound of Music, Benanti’s extensive theatre resume has included such diverse shows as Gypsy, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Into the Woods, The Wedding Singer and Nine. Her television credits have included starring in the Matthew Perry series Go On and The Playboy Club, as well as appearing on the series Nurse Jackie, The Big C, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, The Good Wife and Elementary. In 2008, Benanti won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for her role as Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy, opposite Patti LuPone. ICM Partners:  Stage actress and singer Lena Hall is now repped by Sean Liebowitz. Hall was recently nominated for a Tony Award for her breakout role as Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, opposite Neil Patrick Harris. A lifelong dancer, Hall made her Broadway debut in Cats when she was still a teenager and soon made her name in off-Broadway rock-oriented musicals such as Rooms, Empire and The Toxic Avenger.  Hall’s previous Broadway credits have included 42^nd Street, Dracula the Musical and Tarzan. More recently, Hall appeared in a memorable role as an uptight yuppie in the Tony-winning Kinky Boots. Hall is also the lead singer for the rock band The Deafening. WME Entertainment: Writer and director Cédric Jimenez is now a client. Jimenez wrote and directed the upcoming period crime thriller La French, which premiered an eight-minute sizzle reel at Cannes and was subsequently picked up by Drafthouse Films for U.S. distribution. Picturehouse Entertainment and Altitude Film Distribution have jointly acquired the U.K. distribution rights.  The feature, which stars Jean Dujardin, is based on the true story of a judge who tried to stop the French Connection in the seventies. Jimenez’s previous credits have included 2007’s Scorpion and 2012’s Aux yeux de tous. He also served as a producer on the features Eden Log and Renaissance Bangkok. In 2003, Jimenez co-directed the documentary Who's the Boss: Boss of Scandalz Strategyz. WME Entertainment: Up-and-coming Brazilian writer and director Gabriela Amaral is now a client. Amaral is riding buzz off her horror-drama screenplay The Father’s Shadow, which came out of the Sundance Writing Labs last January. She was also recently selected for the Directing Labs and she is currently slated to make her feature directing debut in 2015. Prior to The Father’s Shadow, Amaral worked primarily in short films with credits that include Náufragos, Uma primavera, The Comforting Hand and Terno.  Up next, Amaral is writing a script for Walter Salles and she is also in post-production on the short film Freeze.

Management Companies

Evolution Entertainment: Director L. Gustavo Cooper is now repped by Brad Kaplan. Cooper is currently in production on the indie feature June, which stars Casper Van Dien and Victoria Pratt. A successful skateboarder earlier in his life, Cooper’s film career took off when he started making skate videos. Shortly afterwards, he was recognized by 411 Magazine and produced Chronicles of Gnarnia, an episodic film series showcasing upcoming skaters. Since then Cooper has worked primarily on short films, commercials and music videos, with credits that include the shorts Waiting for Lola, ‘M’ is for Music and Velvet Road. June will be released later this year. Primary Wave Music: Iconic 80s rock band The Go-Go’s is now a client. The group is currently planning their fifth studio album and will headline the “Replay America” tour this summer. The all-female band rose to fame in the early eighties after their debut album Beauty and the Beat landed in #1 spot of the Billboard charts for six consecutive weeks in 1981, selling three million copies. Originally formed in 1978 as The Misfits, the group’s three-decade multi-platinum career has seen such hits as “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation” and “Head Over Heels.” In June, the group will be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame during the venue’s 15^th anniversary.