The eighth annual Broadway Stands Up for Freedom! concert was a sold-out success featuring dozens of Broadway's finest, who took to the stage Monday night to support the work of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Performers included the show’s host and musical director Seth Rudetsky and leading actors from Next to Normal, the original cast of Rent, Mary Poppins, Finian’s Rainbow, HAIR and Passing Strange. Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, a longtime NYCLU member, opened the show and served as honorary chairman.
Performers included the show’s host and musical director Seth Rudetsky and leading actors from Next to Normal, the original cast of Rent, Mary Poppins, Finian’s Rainbow, HAIR and Passing Strange. Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, a longtime NYCLU member, opened the show and served as honorary chairman.
“For the eighth straight year, Broadway stars came out to honor and celebrate the vital link between civil liberties and the arts,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “They generously shared their talents to support our work, and, as always, they brought down the house.”
The show, held at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, raised well over $100,000 to benefit the NYCLU’s youth programs, including its work with LGBT teenagers; its Teen Health Initiative, which educates teenagers on their rights to access health care in New York City; and its work to stop aggressive policing and military recruiting in the city’s public schools.
Broadway Stands Up for Freedom! is produced by the NYCLU with an organizing committee spearheaded by founding performer Liana Stampur, Bill Augustin, Daniel Goldstein and Jen Bender, who directed the show. The Producer’s Circle consists of Barbara Whitman, Michael David, David Richenthal, Nina Lannan and Dini von Mueffling.
The Broadway stars also honored winners of the NYCLU’s annual Freedom of Expression Contest, which invited young people in New York City to lend their voices and creativity to the struggle for social justice.
The annual contest, funded by a grant from the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, asks youth to explore a topic relevant to their lives and related to civil rights and liberties. This year, the contest asked young people: What is change you can believe in?
Among the performers were De-Adre Aziza, Tony-nominated star of Passing Strange; Kate Baldwin, Tony-nominated star of Finian’s Rainbow; Liz Callaway, Tony-nominated star of Baby; singer-songwriter Clinton Curtis; Ann Harada of Avenue Q; Rebecca Luker, Tony-nominated star of Mary Poppins; Carrie Manolakos of Mama Mia; Nellie McKay of The Threepenny Opera; Anthony Rapp ofRent; Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tony-nominated star of Rent; Bryce Ryness of Hair, Kate Shindle of Legally Blonde, J. Robert Spencer, Tony-nominated star of Next to Normal; founding performer Liana Stampur; recording artist and actress Katie Thompson; performers Adam Kantor, Lilli Cooper and Franke James Grande; and cast members from HAIR, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Liberty: The Musical.
