Tony Award nominees Tony Sheldon and Robin de Jesús are among Broadway stars who will perform a concert version of the musical The View UpStairs July 11 as a fundraiser for the victims of the June 12 shootings at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, FL.
Money raised by the7 PM concert at Rattlestick Theatre, 224 Waverly Place in the Greenwich Village section of New York will be donated to Equality Florida, which will channel it to the families of the 49 dead and 53 injured in the shootings.
The event is being organized by the show's composer, Max Vernon. His musical, The View UpStairs was inspired by The UpStairs Lounge arson, described as “an equally tragic but largely forgotten attack that occurred at a New Orleans gay bar in 1973.”
In addition to Sheldon (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) and de Jesús (La Cage aux Folles, In the Heights), participating artists are scheduled to include Frenchie Davis (The Voice, American Idol) Gideon Glick (Significant Other, Spring Awakening), Alex Newell (Glee), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Quantico, On the Town), Jason Tam (If/Then), Alma Cuervo (On Your Feet!) and others.
Vernon told Playbill.com, “We want to raise as much money for charity as possible, use music to fight homophobia, and do something healing for the community.”
Tickets, at $30 - 50 can be ordered at www.theviewupstairsbenefit.bpt.me.