10th Annual Broadway Stands Up for Freedom Concert Brings Out the Stars for the NYCLU

The 10th annual Broadway Stands Up for Freedom concert was a sold-out smash. Some of Broadway’s finest – including the show’s host and musical director Seth Rudetsky and Leslie Odom, Jr. of the TV series Smash – took the stage on Monday night at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts to salute the work of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“We’re so grateful to the Broadway stars who took the stage to celebrate the vital link between civil liberties and the arts,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “They generously share their talent to support our youth programs, and this year’s show was better than ever. Brava to all the performers!”

Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, a longtime NYCLU member, opened the show and served as honorary chairman. The packed audience included renowned composer Philip Glass, City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, City Council Member Daniel Dromm, and Alphonso David, Governor Cuomo’s deputy secretary for civil rights.

Proceeds from the show benefit the NYCLU’s youth programs, including its work with LGBT teenagers; its Teen Activist Project, which engages New York City teens as organizers and peer educators on civil rights and civil liberties issues; and its work to stop overly aggressive policing and zero-tolerance discipline in the city’s public
schools.

The lineup featured Nikki Renée Daniels (Porgy & Bess), Darius de Haas (Rent), Lindsay Mendez (Dogfight), Ripley Sobo (Once), Julia Murney (Wicked), Uzo Aduba (Godspell), The Broadway Boys, Ethan Lipton and his Orchestra, and founding performer Liana Stampur with Clinton Curtis. Long time NYCLU supporter Celia Keenan-Bolger, a Tony-nominee for her turn in Peter and the Starcatcher, made a special appearance via video with her brother Andrew Keenan-Bolger, who is currently starring in Newsies.

The show was staged by Daniel Goldstein, director of the recent Broadway revival of Godspell.
The evening’s highlights included a reading by 18-year-old Maurisa Fraser, who gave a stirring recital of her poem, Boogie Man, which won First Place for poetry in the NYCLU Freedom of Expression Contest. The contest invites young people in New York City to speak their minds on important civil liberties issues of the day.