Theatre stars Craig and Jackman raise $1.5m for AIDS charity
The Broadway show A Steady Rain has become the all-time top fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, thanks to its two stars, Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman.
The play raised a total of $1,549,952 during the just-completed annual six-week fundraising drive. This figure shatters the previous record of monies raised by a single show, that being set in 2003, when the musical The Boy From Oz raised $632,998. Oz marked Jackman’s last appearance on Broadway before A Steady Rain.
The fundraising period culminates in the Gypsy of the Year Competition, a highly anticipated two-day celebration/variety show, featuring a collection of skits and songs marking the end of the annual money-raising drive.
A record-setting total of $4,630,695 was raised by the 60 participating Broadway, Off-Broadway and National Touring Shows in this, the 21st year of its competition. This surpasses the previous high of $3,927,000 set in 2007.
Craig and Jackman’s fundraising efforts proved to be quite popular with the theatergoing public, the two at times literally auctioning off the clothes off their backs, as well as posing for pictures and signing autographs after the show; all as part of their various appeals to encourage people to give to BC/EFA.
After A Steady Rain, the next highest amount of money raised by a Broadway show was $76,209 from Superior Donuts. Leader among Broadway musicals was The Phantom of the Opera with $161,060, followed by Billy Elliot ($153,677), Hair ($152,648), and Wicked (S147,611).
Leading the touring shows was the National Company of Rent, which took in $242,383. The top Off-Broadway fundraiser was Avenue Q, with $27,917.
Since its founding in 1988, BC/EFA has raisd more than $170 million for services for people with AIDS and other serious illnesses. The organization also awards annual grants to more than 400 AIDS and family services organizations across the United States.
www.broadwaycares.org.
To contact the Stage news team email newsdesk@thestage.co.uk or call 020 7403 1818, selecting option 2 (editorial) followed by option 1 (newsdesk).
If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
Follow The Stage on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest entertainment industry news to your desktop or mobile.
Latest news
- Tom Ellis to appear as part of BBC1’s The Preston Passion
- Tom Ellis and Christine Bottomley are among the actors being lined up to appear in three new dramas being made as…
- Doctor Who star Matt Smith made patron of Royal Court Young Writers Festival
- Matt Smith has been appointed as patron of the Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival.
- Christopher Eccleston joins NT Antigone
- Christopher Eccleston has been cast in the National Theatre’s forthcoming production of Antigone.
- Dirty Dancing musical extends UK tour
- Dirty Dancing is to extend its UK tour into the summer of 2013, with producers announcing five more dates.
- King’s Cross Award for New Writing winner announced
- Rob Johnston has won the King’s Cross Award for New Writing 2011.
- ITV to expand characters’ storylines online
- ITV is to expand on the storylines of characters in Emmerdale, by creating content that can only be accessed online.
Content is copyright © 2012 The Stage Media Company Limited unless otherwise stated.
All RSS feeds are published for personal, non-commercial use. (What’s RSS?)