CONGRATS TO "THE LEADING MEN II" CONCERT! (AND BRAVO TO BIRDLAND)
"The Leading Men II," which featured top male performers of Broadway
and cabaret, raised over $7,000 for BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS
(
http://www.bcefa.org/
) last Monday at BIRDLAND (315 West 44th Street, NYC - 212-581-3080
-
http://www.birdlandjazz.com/
). Hosted by John Tartaglia ("Beauty and the Beast"), the benefit
concert showcased Broadway stars Matt Cavenaugh ("Grey Gardens"),
Adam Jacobs ("Les Miserables"), Telly Leung ("Rent"), Norm Lewis ("Les
Miserables"), Perry Ojeda ("On the Town"), Hugh Panaro ("Lestat")
and Daniel Reichard ("Jersey Boys"). Also sharing the stage were MAC
Award and Bistro Award winners Tom Andersen, Jim Caruso, Tim Di Pasqua
and David Gurland. Plus, there were Jason Michael Snow ("The Pirates
of Penzance" at GOODSPEED) and Ben Strothmann ("Playbill Yearbook").
Jim Caruso, who received a 2007 NYC Nightlife Award for booking the
Broadway cabaret series at Birdland, reports, "The show was such a
success, and so totally packed, that we were dragging in chairs from
the dressing room for last-minute guests." The soldout concert raised
twice as much as the previous "Leading Men" show at JoeÕs Pub, thanks
in part of Birdland owner Gianni Valente, who generously donated the
use of the venue, allowing 100% of the cover charges to go to Broadway
Cares!
The concert was produced by Wayman Wong, who celebrated and just wrapped
up his four-year run writing "The Leading Men" column for Playbill.com.
Alan Muraoka directed, and Seth Rudetsky music-directed. Matt Windman,
the theater writer for AM New York, called the show "triumphant" and
"a strong, damn good concert."
For BroadwayWorld backstage photos, visit
http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=15622
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