Different Stars: A Reckoning With Time, Trauma, and Circumstance, a new queer song cycle for four voices, composed and written by Karl Saint Lucy (with works from William Shakespeare), will premiere August 15 at 7 PM ET on YouTube. Co-produced by Saint Lucy and ChamberQUEER, the live stream will feature James Jackson, Jr. (A Strange Loop, The Gorgeous Nothings), Danielle Buonaiuto, Victoria Huston-Elem, and Saint Lucy, with direction by Raquel Cion and costumes by David Quinn. Different Stars is a subset of more than 40 songs written in grief. For this condensed, 40-minute version, 12 of the songs are set in the present day during the events of the pandemic. The performance will benefit QORDS, the music-centered camp for LGBTQ+ youth, focusing on queer and transgendered youth.
The York Theater Company's Show (and Tell!) live panel discussion summer series concludes August 4 at 7:10 PM ET with an evening spotlighting Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner's Carmelina, the only show to be presented three times in the Musicals in Mufti series (1996, 2006, and 2019). The York's James Morgan and theatre historian Charles Wright will moderate the discussion with cast and creative team members from all three productions, including director Michael Leeds, Barry Harman (additional lyrics), music directors Michael Lavine (1996) and David Hancock Turner (2019), and cast members Andréa Burns, Debbie Gravitte, MaryJoanna Grisso, Evan Harrington, Marla Schaffel, Timothy John Smith, Joey Sorge, Ray Wills, and Eli Zoller. Click here for more information.
Michael Hsu Rosen (Torch Song) will star in a reading of Mike Bartlett’s Cock, joined by Ron Bohmer, Nick Rashad Bourroughs, and Charnette Batey, August 10 at 6 PM ET. The reading will benefit The Trevor Project, which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth. The reading will be directed and produced by Daxton Bloomquist, assisted by Andrew Hodge, with casting by Hardt Casting. For tickets, which begin at $15, click here.
Cast members and musicians from numerous Broadway and regional productions have joined forces for a socially distanced version of The Beatles' “(I Get By) With a Little Help From My Friends” to benefit The Bail Project (donate here), which works to prevent incarceration and combat racial and economic disparities in the bail system. Produced by Sean Driscoll and spearheaded by video editor Julia Hoffmann and music director-audio engineer Nick Wilders, the video features additional music assistance from Jonja Merck and Spanish translation by Belén Moyano. Singers and musicians include Joel Bauman, Ben Bogen, Miche Braden, Tristen Buettel, Ashley Everhart, Jason Farcas, Michael Herlihy, Julia Hoffmann, Erinn Peet Lukes, Marc Malsegna, Belén Moyano, Jarrett Murphy, Jen Perry, Sarah Statler, Nick Stephens, Erin J. Reifler, Raquel Reigns, Tim Riven, Juan “The Beast” Rodriguez, Abbey Vensel, Nick Wilders, Marza Wilks, and Rob Young. Click here to watch the music video.
