We are always looking on the bright side of life in the QUEERGURU Office as much as possible. Some may say it’s like keeping our heads in the sands especially as one of the candidates in the Presidential Election has sunk even lower than his usual obnoxious lying self. Turning on the TV news it is impossible not to accept that we are not actually watching some hysterical Reality TV program made on the Mad Dictators Channel in some 3rd World Country .
However the talented people at Broadway for Biden have been bringing back a sense of style, passion and respect in all the events they have produced, it actually feels like a totally different election.
Their latest star studded event is Our America: A Concert for the Soul of the Nation. The virtual event brought a very large slice of Broadway together to celebrate hope and benefit the Biden Victory Fund. The concert will be streamed via news publisher NowThis, on Facebook via Broadway for Biden and NowThis, on Broadway Unlocked, and can be viewed below!
Tony Award® nominee Liesl Tommy (Eclipsed), director of the upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, directs and executive produces the show alongside executive producers Julie Boardman, Nolan Doran, Halle Morse, and Jennifer Mudge. Our America features more than 75 celebrated artists, including Derrick Baskin, Laura Benanti, Victoria Clark, Glenn Close, Chuck Cooper, Darren Criss, André De Shields, Renée Elise Goldsberry, John Goodman, Jayne Houdyshell, Jennifer Hudson, James Monroe Iglehart, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Norman Lear, Norm Lewis, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Rita Moreno, Karen Olivo, Ashley Park, Steven Pasquale, Carrie Preston, Kelani Queypo, Chita Rivera, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Phillipa Soo, Ephraim Sykes, BD Wong, the Broadway Dreams Foundation Choir, and the casts of Six and KPOP.
An array of original material was created for the evening, including never-before-seen stagings of beloved Broadway musical numbers, previews of Broadway-bound productions, and speeches that acknowledge the stakes of the present with a hopeful eye toward a better future. In Our America will include contributions written by six-time Tony nominee Chad Beguelin (The Prom, Disney’s Aladdin), Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner (Angels in America), two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined), Robert O’Hara (Bootycandy), Stacey Rose (America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of The American Negro), Aurin Squire (“This Is Us”), DeLanna Studi (And So We Walked), Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (Indecent, How I Learned to Drive), and John Waters (Hairspray).
The show featured original choreography by Tony winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, Lincoln Center Theater‘s The King and I), Lorin Latarro (Mrs. Doubtfire, Waitress), Ray Mercer (Disney’s The Lion King), and Abbey O’Brien (associate choreographer, Jagged Little Pill and Waitress), with music direction by Tony winner Jason Michael Webb (Choir Boy) and orchestrations by Academy Award® nominee and six-time Emmy® winner Chris Boardman (The Color Purple, The Wiz films) and Charlie Rosen (Moulin Rouge!, Be More Chill). Sean McLaughlin (Bullets To Books) serves as director of photography, and Grady Bowman (The Cher Show) is associate choreographer.
P.S. We loved it all BUT we had two favorites. Laura Benanti, as Melania Trump singing Send In The Clowns plus the last item in Jennifer Hudson singing The Sun Comes Out Today from Annie. You’ll need a box of kleenex for that, and a check book/credit card as this alone will make you want to gIve as much as you can.
| WATCH/LISTEN/APPLAUD/DONATE AND VOTE |
N.B. And if you waiting for all the Stars
that Support Trump to put an a similar
extravaganza, then it will be a long wait
and poor Kirstie Alley
is going to have her work cut out 