Cast members of various Broadway shows are teaming up to provide a digital benefit concert to help raise funds for Broadway Cares’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund.
The show, dubbed Broadway Does Mother’s Day, will take place this Sunday, May 10 and feature members from Broadway’s Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Jagged Little Pill, Company, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Chicago, Diana, Mean Girls, Girl from North Country, Six, and Mrs. Doubtfire. The performance will help recoup funds that would have been raised during Broadway’s annual Easter Bonnet Competition, which was cancelled this year amid the pandemic.
Throughout the show, members will appear alongside their children and mothers, performing musical numbers, comedy, and feature celebrity guests. So far, some of the scheduled guests include Kate Baldwin, Betty Buckley, Chuck Cooper, and Harvey Fierstien, with sketches from Mean Girls, Six, Chicago, and Mrs. Doubtfire, among others.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ Executive Director Tom Viola said in a statement that the organization is “delighted to see the theater community come together for Broadway Does Mother’s Day and honored to be a beneficiary of what promises to be such a special show.”
“When crises hit, the Broadway community and theatre fans everywhere have always responded with generosity, compassion and action,” Viola said. “We launched the COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund on behalf of and for those onstage, backstage and behind the scenes who need a helping hand during this pandemic.”
Theatergoers and Broadway fans can stream the concert this Sunday at 3PM ET on BroadwayDoesMothersDay.com.
Broadway personnel have already been helping those in need; when news of the virus first began to spread in New York City, Hamilton’s Javier Munoz launched the Broadway Relief Project to unite seamstresses, actors, and others in the community to help create 10 million surgical gowns across the city. The Lifeline Campaign: Protect Today, Rebuild Tomorrow, has been created by the Theatre Development Fund to aim $500,000 by the end of June.
At this point, Broadway shows are currently halted through June 7, though one producer in the U.K. believes that shows may not reopen on the West End or Broadway until 2021.
