Update: If you missed the concert on Friday, it is still available for viewing on YouTube.
On November 9, 2009, Tony Award-winning actress Bernadette Peters held a concert at the Minskoff Theatre in New York. The concert was a fundraiser for two organizations near and dear to her heart: Broadway Barks and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. That performance, Bernadette Peters: A Special Concert, will be streamed this Friday, July 10th, at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT on Broadway Cares’ Facebook page and YouTube channels. It will also be streamed on Playbill.com and iHeartRadioBroadway.com.
Peters was last seen on Broadway in the revival of Hello, Dolly! She received Tony Awards for her performances in the 1999 revival of Annie Get Your Gun and in 1986’s Song and Dance. She received Tony nominations for her performances in Gypsy, The Goodbye Girl, Sunday in the Park with George, Mack and Mabel and On the Town.
The concert will features songs from her stage career and other Broadway material. You can expect music by Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jule Styne and more. Richard Jay-Alexander directed the live event and the music director was Marvin Laird.
Special guests who appeared at the concert include her good friend and co-founder of Broadway Barks, the late Mary Tyler Moore. Broadway Barks was founded in 1988 as an organization to find homes for shelter animals.
Joining Peters for this “watch party” will be actor Michael Urie. The two will discuss Peters’ career prior to the start of the concert.
The only other way to have seen this performance is to have been one of the ticket holders in 2009. Since the Minskoff Theatre has a capacity of 1,621, that means only a very few were able to see Peters at this concert.
You don’t need to pay to watch this one-time-only streaming. However, donations are encouraged. There are also sponsorship opportunities for those who want to do even more for BC/EFA.
I’ve seen Peters both in concert and in multiple musicals. You won’t want to miss this if you are a fan of her or this music.
Photo of Bernadette Peters courtesy of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS