An online revival of the celebrated series of songs and monologues Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, starring a bevy of Broadway, television and film favorites streamed on World AIDS Day – Tuesday, December 1. The virtual production, featuring 50 performers, benefited 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 included performances from Brooks Ashmanskas, Laura Bell Bundy, Paul Castree, Richard Chamberlain, Charity Angél Dawson, Robin de Jesús, Fran Drescher, J. Harrison Ghee, Gideon Glick, Stephanie Gibson, Lana Gordon, Alan H. Green, Lena Hall, Jayne Houdyshell, Lisa Howard, James Monroe Iglehart, Famke Janssen, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Cherry Jones, Francis Jue, Joaquina Kalukango, Tari Kelly, Nathan Lane, Norm Lewis, Vicki Lewis, Telly Leung, Alyse Alan Louis, Andrea Macasaet, Stanley Wayne Mathis, Kevin McHale, Eric William Morris, Jessie Mueller, Michael Notardonato, Okieriete Onaodowan, Royina Patel, Anthony Rapp, Jeffery Roberson, Krysta Rodriguez, Seth Rudetsky, Kirsten Scott, Matthew Scott, Michael James Scott, JK Simmons, Robin Lord Taylor, Evan Todd, Mariand Torres, Alysha Umphress, Anna Uzele, Marisha Wallace, Cynthia Nixon and Michael Xavier.

There also were special appearances by longtime Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS friends Danny Burstein, Judith Light, Billy Porter (who’s also a member of the Broadway Cares Board of Trustees) and Michael Urie.

Created in the face of one pandemic and revived in another, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens features 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 Queens is 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, Daniel Mitura/Jill Steinberg, Ann Moore/Jane Furse, and Justin Ross Cohen, in association with The Abingdon Theatre Company (Chad Austin, Artistic Director). Music 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. 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.

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Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of the social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. Broadway Cares also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., providing lifesaving medication, healthy meals, counseling and emergency assistance.

For more information, please visit Broadway Cares online at broadwaycares.org, at facebook.com/BCEFA, at instagram.com/BCEFA, at twitter.com/BCEFA and at youtube.com/BCEFA.

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