The December 10 broadcast of NBC’s One Night Only: The Best of Broadway, hosted by Mean Girls creator Tina Fey, raised $3,051,297 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The evening, which included performances from the casts of Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations, Chicago, Jagged Little Pill, Jersey Boys, and Mean Girls—as well as an appearance by the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child—also featured appeals by longtime Broadway Cares advocates Barbra Streisand, Sean Hayes, Nathan Lane, Billy Porter, and Vanessa Williams.
“We are deeply grateful to all the Broadway casts, crews, and musicians, their producers, and everyone at NBC for making this spectacular evening a reality,” Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Executive Director Tom Viola said in a statement. “This celebration of Broadway will help thousands who make their livings on stage, backstage, and behind the scenes and with the shutdown of our beloved theatres have been left out of work for months. They need a helping hand today. I salute NBC and the tens of thousands of donors who responded to our appeals for support in this time of crisis. Broadway will be back, live and in person. Until then, what we do together now makes a difference.”
Fey added, “I was so happy to be a part of this special night for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and I send heartfelt thanks to everyone across the country who donated. You’re helping to provide emergency assistance to so many in our community who are in need right now.”
Donations provide emergency financial assistance and care to those in the Broadway community who are struggling through a pandemic that will keep their industry closed for more than a year. That help is being provided through The Actors Fund, the employee assistance program for everyone in the entertainment industry and performing arts. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the single largest financial provider for The Actors Fund’s safety net of social services.
One Night Only: The Best of Broadway also featured performances by Kelly Clarkson, Brett Eldredge, and Patti LaBelle, and a chorus of theatre veterans performing Rent's "Seasons of Love," along with appearances from Annaleigh Ashford, Antonio Banderas, Lance Bass, Kristen Bell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sutton Foster, Peter Gallagher, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ron Cephas Jones, Brittney Mack, Camryn Manheim, Rob McClure, Alanis Morissette, Jerry O’Connell, Leslie Odom Jr., Mary-Louise Parker, John Stamos, Aaron Tveit, Blair Underwood, and Susan Kelechi Watson.
The broadcast was a production of Brad Lachman Productions with Lachman serving as executive producer. Bill Bracken was co-executive producer. Matt Lachman was also a producer.
Ahead of the NBC event, a Playbill Pre-Show took place on Facebook and YouTube hosted by Social Media Director Felicia Fitzpatrick with special guests including Jagged Little Pill Tony nominee Celia Rose Gooding, Ain’t Too Proud’s Jawan M. Jackson, and Mean Girls’ Mary Kate Morrissey.
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.
The $3,051,297 total reflects donations through midnight December 13. Donations can still be made at BroadwayCares.org/help2020.
