Seventh Annual Broadway Stands Up for Freedom! Brings Out the Stars for NYCLU’s Youth Work

The seventh annual Broadway Stands Up for Freedom concert was a sold-out smash. Dozens of Broadway’s finest – including the show’s host and musical director Seth Rudetsky and leading actors from Hair, the original cast of Falsettos, Rent, Cats, Spelling Bee, Les Miz, and the hit television shows Lost and True Blood – took to the stage Monday night to salute the work of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

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“For seven years now, Broadway stars have come out to honor and celebrate the vital link between civil liberties and the arts,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “They generously share their talent to support our important work, and this year’s show was better than ever.”

Proceeds from the show, held at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, will 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 overly aggressive policing and military recruiting in the city’s public schools.

Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, a longtime NYCLU member, opened the show and served as honorary chairman. Broadway Stands Up for Freedom! is produced by the NYCLU with an organizing committee spearheaded by actors Todd Buonopane, Celia Keenan-Bolger, founding performer Liana Stampur, Bill Augustin, and directors Jen Bender and Daniel Goldstein. The Producer’s Circle includes Barbara Whitman (Next to Normal, 33 Variations, Mary Stuart), Michael David (Jersey Boys), David Richenthal (I Am My Own Wife, Long Days Journey Into Night), Nina Lannan (Billy Elliot: The Musical, 9 to 5) and Jujamcyn Theaters.

The husband-and-wife team of Michael Emerson of Lost and Carrie Preston of True Blood recited winning entries from 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, young people were invited to reflect and comment on justice in America – in school, on the street and in society at large. The awards were presented to contest winners at Monday’s show.

Among the performers were Tony-winner Michael Cerveris; Daphne Rubin-Vega, the Tony-nominated star of Rent; Stephen Bogardus, the Tony-nominated star of White Christmas and Falsettos; Tony-winner Michael Rupert; Liz Callaway, the Tony-nominated star of Baby and Cats; Jesse Tyler Ferguson of Spelling Bee and Modern Family; Laura Osnes of South Pacific and Grease; Dana Steingold of Spelling Bee; Nick Blaemire of Glory Days and Cry Baby; Brian Lowdermilk of The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown and Henry & Mudge; Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen of The Burnt Part Boys and Fugitive Songs; and The Petersons.