The Broadway League’s Black to Broadway Initiative presented Broadway Celebrates Juneteenth, a free outdoor event centered around Black joy and unity featuring Black Broadway performers, June 19 in Times Square.
Tony winners Lillias White and Ben Vereen were on hand to celebrate the day, with live music provided by The Music Performance Trust Fund. Participants also included cast members from such new and returning Broadway shows as Aladdin, Diana, Girl from the North Country, The Lion King, Moulin Rouge: The Musical, The Phantom of the Opera, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and Thoughts of a Colored Man.
Additional appearances and performers included Lawrence Alexander with Gary Cooper and Jaquez Sims; Jacqueline B Arnold; Nick Rashad Burroughs; Bongi Duma; Solomon Dumas, LaVon Fisher-Wilson; Amber Iman; André Jordan with Ravi Best on trumpet; Crystal Joy; Stanley Martin; Anastacia McCleskey; Ray Mercer & Lindiwe Dlamini and Mduduzi Madela; Janinah Burnett with Keith Brown on piano; Keenan Scott II, Britton Smith & The Sting; Kimber Elayne Sprawl with Matthew Frederick Harris, Marc Kudisch, Tom Nelis, and Austin Scott; L. Steven Taylor; and Richard Riaz Yoder.
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The event was sponsored by MAC Cosmetics and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS with the support of the Times Square Alliance.
The creative and production team included director Steve H. Broadnax III, music director Daryl Waters, general manager Nzinga Williams, and stage manager Cody Renard Richard. The Broadway League is the executive producer of the event. Brian Moreland and Aaliytha Stevens are co-chairs of the Broadway League's Multi-Cultural Task Force.
The goal of Black to Broadway, created by The Broadway League in 2019 under the name Let’s Do Broadway, is to inspire deeper engagement with, awareness of, and access to Broadway for all Black people. For more, visit BroadwayLeague.com.
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