Tom Wopat to hold local benefit performance

ABC2 had a special guest Tuesday evening. Grammy Award-winning, two-time Tony Award nominee and Dukes of Hazard star Tom Wopat stopped by our studio.

Wopat is in the area for a benefit performance for Pathfinders for Autism and St. Elizabeth School.

The one-night-only production will be held on December 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kraushaar Auditorium on the Goucher College campus. Organizers say it will feature a mix of seasonal and Broadway favorites performed by Wopat and his eight-piece band of New York City players.

The benefit performance will also include special appearances by local performers from the Friends School Chamber Choir, the Susquehanna Youth Ballet and the elite dancers of the EMC Performance Arts Studio.

While known by many as Luke Duke from the 1980s hit TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, Wopat's expressive and flexible baritone singing voice has made him a Broadway star for over 30 years. Among his many Broadway credits, Wopat performed leading roles in the Tony Award-winning City of Angels, Guys and Dolls, Chicago and 42nd Street.

He received a Tony Award nomination and shared a Grammy Award in 1999 for creating the role of Frank Butler in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun, opposite Bernadette Peters. He received another Tony Award nomination in 2005 for leading actor in "A Catered Affair". Most recently he created leading roles in the 2010 musical "Sondheim on Sondheim" and in the 2011 musical, "Catch Me If You Can".