A Benefit Concert for Orlando
Monday July 11, 7pm
Hosted by Rattlestick Theater
224 Waverly Place
Proceeds of Ticket Sales Donated to:
Equality Florida consists of two organizations - Equality Florida Institute, Inc., their 501(c)(3) educational charity and Equality Florida Action, Inc., their 501(c)(4) advocacy organization. Together, these organizations form the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Through education, grassroots organizing, coalition building, and lobbying, they are changing Florida so that no one suffers harassment or discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Equality Florida made and maintains this clear commitment in all of their communications: "100% of all funds received will be distributed to support every single victim of the horrific shooting at Orlando's Pulse Nightclub. This includes victims’ families, survivors, and those in the club who may not have suffered physical injury but are in need of trauma support. This heinous act targeted community, and, it is our responsibility to provide a mechanism to safely and securely donate to the victims of this tragedy and their families." Transparency statement: www.eqfl.org/transparent
The victims were overwhelmingly Latino LGBTQ young people. Whether citizen or undocumented resident, all victims will be eligible to receive funds.
The View UpStairs/The UpStairs Lounge Arson
The View UpStairs is a musical written by Max Vernon, inspired by the arson attack on the New Orleans gay bar, The UpStairs Lounge, in 1973.
Prior to the Pulse Orlando massacre (49 dead), the arson attack on The UpStairs Lounge had been the biggest loss of American LGBTQI+ lives, when 32 people died.
This Benefit Concert version of The View UpStairs will commemorate the lives of those who have died in attacks on the LGBTQI+ community and raise money for the survivors of the Pulse Orlando massacre.
Concert Benefit Performers
Blake Daniel
Broadway: Original Production of SPRING AWAKENING (Ernst). Off-Broadway: Transport Group's HELLO AGAIN (The Young Thing; Drama League nom). Other theatre includes works at New York Stage and Film, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre. Film: Bradley Rust Gray's JACK AND DIANE. Television: IT COULD BE WORSE (Hulu).
Gideon Glick
Broadway: Original casts of Spring Awakening and Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. Off Broadway: Significant Other (Roundabout Theater), The Few (Rattlestick Theater), Jack in Into the Woods (Public/ Delacorte Theater), Speech and Deabate (Roundabout Theater), Wild Animals You Should Know (MCC), Spring Awakening (Atlantic Theater). Film: Speech and Debate, Song One, A Case of You, One Last Thing…, Gods Behaving Badly. TV: “The Good Wife,” “Man Seeking Woman,” “Margot vs. Lily” (recur), “Devious Maids” (recur), “It Could Be Worse” (recur), Podcast: “The Message.”
Jay Armstrong Johnson Broadway: On The Town (Astaire Award nomination), Hands on a Hardbody, Catch Me If You Can, Hair. TV/Film: Quantico (Dr. Will Olson; recurring), Sex & the City 2, Law & Order: SVU. Off-Broadway: Wild Animals You Should Know (MCC), Working (Drama Desk Award; Prospect Theater Co.). Other NY Theatre: The Most Happy Fella (Encores!), Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall filmed for PBS). First national tour: A Chorus Line. Regional: 42nd Street (Billy Lawlor) Hello Dolly! (Barnaby) Pirates! or Gilbert & Sullivan Plunder'd (Frederick) The MUNY; The Last Goodbye (The Old Globe), Pool Boy (Barrington Stage Co), Hairspray (Weston Playhouse). Concert: 35mm: A Musical Exhibition(on iTunes), Todrick Hall's Straight Outta Oz (on iTunes), Jay Armstrong Johnson LIVE at Feinstein's/54 Below (live album dropping this fall). jayarmstrongjohnson.org
Chris McCarrell can currently be seen as Marius in the Broadway revival of Les Miserables. He also performed as Nibs, the Lost Boy, in “Peter Pan Live!” on NBC. He's sold out solo concerts at Feinstein's/54 Below and can regularly be seen performing in late night cabaret all around NYC. His regional theatre credits include Bubble Boy in Bubble Boy, Hermie in Summer of ’42, Gabe in Next to Normal, Anthony in Sweeney Todd, and Lewis in Pippin. Chris is a proud Baldwin Wallace graduate.
Alex Newell
Alex Newell's voice makes the heart swell: it's a clean, undiluted instrument of joy, a voice that soars with the history of classic dance music and the freshness of modern pop. Newell's voice has always radiated warmth and energy, from his days in the church choir and local musicals to his acclaimed stint on Glee as Wade "Unique" Adams, a male-to-female transgender character in the Glee world.
Tony Sheldon
A native of Australia where his many starring roles include MAN OF LA MANCHA, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, THE PRODUCERS, PRIVATE LIVES, I HATE HAMLET, NOISES OFF, INTO THE WOODS and TORCH SONG TRILOGY, Tony won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his Broadway debut as Bernadette in PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, a role he also played in Australia, New Zealand, London (Olivier nomination) and Toronto (Dora Award) for 1750 performances. In New York he played Julius Caesar in Charles Busch's CLEOPATRA (Theater For The New City) and appeared in THE BAND WAGON at City Center Encores!, ART & SCIENCE (Bridge Theatre), A CHARLES DICKENS CHRISTMAS (Urban Stages) SAINT JOAN, THE MILLIONAIRESS, HEARTBREAK HOUSE and THE APPLE CART (Project Shaw). Regionally, he has performed in THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT-THE SMELL OF THE CROWD, (Goodspeed Opera House), EMPIRE (La Mirada), AMELIE (Berkeley Rep.), EVER AFTER (Paper Mill), MY FAIR LADY (Guthrie Theatre), VICTOR/VICTORIA (Houston TUTS), CAMELOT (Kennedy Centre) and HELLO, DOLLY! (Goodspeed) for which he won the Connecticut Critics' Award.
Frenchie Davis is originally from Los Angeles, California and studied theatre at Howard University. Her theatrical credits include RENT (Broadway), Dreamgirls, Ain't Misbehavin', and Cinderella Enchanted. Television/Film credits include The OWN Network's “Wanda Sykes Presents: Herlarious;” voice-over work for the Nickelodeon cartoon, “Wonder Pets;” and The SyFy Channel's “Dead 7.” She is also a Grammy nominee. When she is not performing, she devotes her time to her other passions: social activism and education. She is in the final year of her MBA and plans to begin applying for her doctoral studies next year.
Robin de Jesus
Broadway: Wicked, In the Heights (Tony nomination, Drama Desk Award), La Cage aux Folles (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), Rent. Select Off-Broadway and regional: Domesticated (Lincoln Center), In the Heights, Patti Issues, Mother Jones, Aladdin, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Grease and Godspell. Select film: Camp, Hairbrained, Gun Hill Road, Elliot Loves, 11:55 Holyoke, Fat Girls.Select TV: "Law & Order: SVU," "How to Make It in America." Cabaret: Crush to Crushed and The Struggle is Real (54 Below.) Tweet, Instagram and Vine @RobinOfJesus
Ben Mayne Tours: South Pacific. Regional: Les Miserables, Forever Plaid, Plaid Tidings, Summer of '42, South Pacific, Buddy Holly Story, Chamberlain: The Musical, Sweethearts of Swing, Sweeney Todd, The Drowsy Chaperone, I'll Be Seeing You. TV: “Vinyl” on HBO.
MJ Rodriguez
Jason Tam Broadway: If/Then (David); Lysistrata Jones (Xander); A Chorus Line (Paul); Les Misérables (Gavroche). Off-Broadway: Marry Me A Little. Tour: Les Misérables. Regional: Guthrie Theater; Sacramento Music Circus; Casa Mañana; Sharon Playhouse. NY/Workshop: Nobody Loves You; Allegiance; The Last Goodbye; US; Clueless; The Black Suits; The Nightingale; The Yellow Wood. TV: "Do No Harm"; "Hawaii 5-0"; "Guilty" (FOX pilot); "One Life to Live"; "Beyond the Break". Film: Every Little Step (documentary). BFA from NYU Tisch.
Max Vernon
Described by the New Yorker as "equal parts bohemia and Broadway," Max's work has been performed and developed at Ars Nova, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Wondrous Strange, Humana Festival 2016), Keen Company, Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Naked Angels, New Dramatists, Theatreworks USA, Two River Theater (NJ), Ma-Yi, Dixon Place, LaMaMa, Goodspeed Opera House, Pride Films and Plays (Chicago), among others.
He is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant, New York Stage and Film's Founders Award, New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, and the JFund Award from the Jerome Foundation. He has been a Dramatist Guild Theatre Fellow, and an artist in residence at Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat and the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony. He is currently a member of Ars Nova's Uncharted, and former member of the Civilians' R&D Group. He has performed over a hundred concerts in New York City, including sold out shows at Joe's Pub (Frisk Me: The Songs of Max Vernon), Lincoln Center (LC Originals) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Civilians' Let Me Ascertain You).
His musicals include The View UpStairs (NYU, Pride Films and Plays, Invisible Wall Productions), 30 Million (Keen Company) and WIRED (Ars Nova) Developing: KPOP! (Ars Nova/Ma-Yi/Woodshed Collective); Co-Op (Ars Nova, Naked Angels Radio); Show & Tell (Jerome Foundation, Civilians R&D Group); Nincest (Berkeley Rep Ground Floor) MFA: NYU- Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Www.maxvernon.com