A streaming production of Bill Russell and Janet Hood‘s 1989 revue Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, featuring 50 stars of stage and screen, will be presented on World AIDS Day, December 1, beginning at 5 PM ET at BroadwayCares.org/Elegies. The show, which will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will be available through December 5. Russell and Justin Ross Cohen direct, with musical direction by Hood and casting by Stephen DeAngelis.
Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (book and lyrics by Russell and music by Hood) memorializes and honors those who lost their lives to AIDS. The show premiered at the height of the AIDS crisis told in free-verse monologues with a blues, jazz and rock score. Each monologue is written from the perspective of one who died from the virus. The songs represent the feelings of friends and family members dealing with the loss.
Performers set to appear include Brooks Ashmanskas (The Prom), Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde), Robin de Jesús (The Boys in the Band), Stephanie Gibson (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Lana Gordon (Chicago), Alan H. Green (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Tony winner Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Tony winner Jayne Houdyshell (The Music Man), Famke Janssen (X-Men), Jay Armstrong Johnson (The Phantom of the Opera), Joaquina Kalukango (Slave Play), Tari Kelly (Groundhog Day), Tony winner Nathan Lane (The Producers), Norm Lewis (Once on This Island), Alyse Alan Louis (Amélie), Andrea Macasaet (Six), Kevin McHale (“Glee”), Tony winner Jessie Mueller (Carousel), Royina Patel, Anthony Rapp (Rent), Jeffery Roberson (Funny Girl), Krysta Rodriguez (Hercules), SiriusXM host Seth Rudetsky, JK Simmons (Whiplash), Robin Lord Taylor (“Gotham”), Alysha Umphress (Scotland, PA), Anna Uzele (Six), Marisha Wallace (Waitress), and Tony winner Cynthia Nixon (“Sex and the City”).
Donations will be accepted at BroadwayCares.org.
DonationsEvery dollar help those across the country affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses to receive healthy meals, lifesaving medication, emergency financial assistance, housing, counseling, and more. The donations also support and champion organizations focused on social justice and anti-racism.
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