An online revival of the celebrated series of songs and monologues Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is set to stream on World AIDS Day - Tuesday, December 1, 2020. The virtual production, featuring 50 performers, will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is a celebration of the lives lost to AIDS told in free-verse monologues with a blues, jazz and rock score.
The stream is set to include performances from Brooks Ashmanskas (The Prom), Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde), Robin de Jesús (The Boys in the Band), Stephanie Gibson(Charlie andthe Chocolate Factory), Lana Gordon (Chicago), Alan H. Green (Charlie and the ChocolateFactory), Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Jayne Houdyshell (The Music Man), Famke Janssen (X-Men), Jay Armstrong Johnson (The Phantom of the Opera), Joaquina Kalukango (Slave Play), TariKelly (Groundhog Day), Nathan Lane (The Producers), Norm Lewis (Once onThis Island), Alyse AlanLouis (Amélie), Andrea Macasaet (Six the Musical), Kevin McHale (TV’s “Glee”), Jessie Mueller (Carousel), Royina Patel, Anthony Rapp (Rent), Jeffery Roberson (FunnyGirl), Krysta Rodriguez (Hercules), SiriusXM host Seth Rudetsky, JK Simmons (Whiplash, TV’s “Law & Order”), Robin Lord Taylor (TV’s “Gotham”), Alysha Umphress (Scotland, PA), Anna Uzele (Six the Musical), Marisha Wallace (Waitress) and Cynthia Nixon (“Sex and the City”). More stars will be announced later this month.
Watch the free stream at broadwaycares.org/elegies beginning at 5 pm Eastern on World AIDS Day, December 1. The show will be available through Saturday, December 5.
Created in the face of one pandemic and revived in another, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queensfeatures a book and lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Janet Hood. It premiered in 1989 as the AIDS crisis ravaged the country. Each monologue is written from the perspective of a character who died from AIDS. The songs represent the feelings of friends and family members dealing with the loss. It’s a show where “joy and hope and love seeps from its every pore,” as one reviewed noted. This stirring piece of theater history, shared this year on World AIDS Day, takes on new meaning amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The streaming of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queensis being directed by Bill Russell and Justin Ross Cohen and produced by Jim Kierstead and Broadway Virtual, Jim Head, Sainty &Eric Nelsen, Rusty & Molly Reid, The Worx Productions LTD, Linda Karn and Ann Moore / Jane Furse, in association with The Abingdon Theatre Company. Musical direction is by Janet Hood and casting is by Stephen DeAngelis.
The stream is free and donations will be accepted for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at broadwaycares.org/elegies2020. Every dollar donated will help those across the country affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses 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.