As you can imagine, Broadway has been hit hard by the pandemic with shows closed for months and likely to remain so until next summer at the earliest. So how did this show come to be? The host, Tiny Fey, certainly had a lot to do with it.

Not only has she starred in two hit shows for NBC (Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock), she is also the writer of the book for the musical, Mean Girls, based on the 2004 film she wrote and starred in along with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. The musical was still running when Broadway was shut down.

Amongst the musicals being represented in One Night Only are Ain’t Too Proud–The Life and Times of The Temptations, Chicago, Jagged Little Pill, Diana: The Musical, Jersey Boys, Mean Girls and Rent.

Diana: The Musical has yet to open on Broadway. Rent hasn’t been on Broadway since 2008. Jersey Boys is off-Broadway after concluding its Broadway run. The latter two shows remain amongst the most popular shows of all-time.

Cast members from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will also appear.

Joining Fey in the two-hour broadcast are Annaleigh Ashford (Sunday in the Park with George), Antonio Banderas (A Chorus Line in Spain), Lance Bass (Hairspray), Kristen Bell (The Crucible), Kelly Clarkson, Brett Eldredge, Jesse Tyler Ferguson (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Sutton Foster (Anything Goes), Peter Gallagher (On the Twentieth Century), Josh Groban (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), Jake Gyllenhaal (Sunday in the Park with George), Sean Hayes (Promises, Promises), Ron Cephas Jones (Of Mice and Men), Patti LaBelle, Nathan Lane (The Producers), Camryn Manheim (Spring Awakening), Rob McClure (Mrs. Doubtfire), Alanis Morissette (Jagged Little Pill), Jerry O’Connell (A Soldier’s Play), Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Mary-Louise Parker (The Sound Inside), Billy Porter (Kinky Boots), John Stamos (Bye Bye Birdie), Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl), Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rouge – The Musical), Blair Underwood (A Soldier’s Play), Vanessa Williams (Into the Woods) and Susan Kelechi Watson (A Naked Girl on the Appian Way).

The show will raise funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

One Night Only: The Best of Broadway airs at 8:00 PM local times.

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Over the weekend, Benanti hosted the first Sunshine Songs concert online. Recognizing that school productions all around the country were being postponed due to the pandemic, she encouraged young performers to send her videos of the performances they would have given had the shows not been canceled. She received over 6,000 videos and the video that started it all has been viewed over 4 million times.

Saturday’s event was the first of many events according to what Benanti said during Sunshine Songs. Let’s hope so. There’s so much joy to embrace here.

During her livestream event, we got to see many of those videos and hear directly from a couple of the kids whose performances were shown. Getting to see 17-year-old Khadija talk passionately about wanting to perform Once on This Island, and then get to see her completely nail a song from the show, was a much-needed reminder that the passion and enthusiasm for the arts starts young. And I agree with Benanti, this young lady will be on a Broadway stage in the future.

Watching the passion of the youngest performers (particularly 9-year-old Parker singing “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman) reminded me of my own participation in school shows so many years ago. It also awakened in me that desire to do more, be more and celebrate life more.

Awakened desires is also a part of Encore!, a series on Disney+ that is hosted by Kristen Bell. The premise is simple: the high school cast of a musical is reunited – after as many as 40 years – and has less than one week to remount the production under the guidance of professional directors, choreographers and music directors.

Encore! first started airing in November of last year. I only recently became aware of the show after a friend told me how moved she was by it. Simply put, I can’t get enough and hope there will be many more seasons of the show.

On a fundamental level each episode functions as a reunion. Like all reunions, these are filled with joy, tears, old issues rearing their ugly heads and expectations there are as high as the pressure to get it right. Each cast must sort all those things out while coming together to perform musicals like Grease, Beauty and the Beast, Godspell, Anything Goes. It is pure joy.

I found myself rooting for each and every one of them to succeed, often times in spite of their insecurities, challenges or limitations. But there are two more extremely powerful components to each episode of Encore!

First and foremost is the concept of second chances. This show absolutely gives every adult not just a chance to relive their youth, but to rediscover the excitement found in performing live theatre. Will they be as good as they were in high school? Might they be better? Can they all sing or dance? Of course not. Do you remember your high school shows? Nonetheless, each adult gets another opening of another show.

The second and more powerful component in this time of crisis (and perhaps why the show resonates on such an emotional level) is the idea that no matter our circumstances, the choices we have made or where our lives have taken us, we are all so much stronger and more powerful when we work together. That sense of camaraderie is the very heartbeat that pulses through each and every episode.

When viewed on the same weekend, as I did, Sunshine Songs and Encore! demonstrate that no matter what your age, coming together to create something bigger than ourselves is amongst the most noble of pursuits. Passion prevails. And with a song in your heart, it’s all so much more fun.

Photo of Kristen Bell courtesy of Disney+

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