HRC Blog

Broadway says “I do”

February 27, 2009

New York's famed Broadway community took part in a huge benefit concert Monday night benefiting five state organizations that are on the frontlines of the fight for marriage equality. The producers of the show split the proceeds evenly between the Empire State Pride Agenda and Equality California, the Family Equality Council, Garden State Equality, and Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force. The star-studded event included the Broadway debut of Tony, Emmy and Grammy award-winner Marc Shaiman's internet sensation, Prop 8 - The Musical, a special performance by Stephen Schwartz (Oscar winner and Tony nominated composer of Wicked), and appearances by Cyndi Lauper, David Hyde Pierce, Harvey Fierstein, Carson Kressley, Judy Gold, Nathan Lane, Michael Urie, Mark Indelicato, Rue McClanahan – and many more! The amazing part about the evening is that, in addition to raising much-needed funds for this organizations, a small group from the Broadway community decided that something more needed to be done and formed Broadway Impact. Broadway Impact founders Jenny Kanelos, Gavin Creel, Scott Duquette & Rory O'Malley wanted to provide simple and concrete action items for people who work on Broadway--and for the fans of Broadway. On Monday night they collected over 700 postcards that will be delivered to New York Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith to thank him for his commitment to bring a marriage bill to the Senate floor once there are enough votes to pass the bill. Broadway Impact is determined to build upon this moment and continue to work with the larger coalition of organizations working to secure enough votes to pass the marriage bill. One of the ways they're doing this is by filling a bus of people to attend Equality and Justice Day in Albany on April 28th. Empire State Pride Agenda, Marriage Equality New York, and HRC were there on Monday night to help this organization collect post-cards and spread the word that the Broadway community is taking action. Here are some additional photos from the event. Click on a photo to enlarge and launch the photo slideshow: [gallery link="file" columns="2"]