Fran Drescher, Gideon Glick, James Monroe Iglehart and More Join ELEGIES FOR ANGELS, PUNKS AND RAGING QUEENS

More Broadway, television and film stars have been added to the celebrated series of songs and monologues Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, set to stream on World AIDS Day - Tuesday, December 1, 2020. The virtual production, featuring 51 performers, will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens honors the lives lost to AIDS through free-verse monologues with a blues, jazz and rock score.

The newest additions to the stream include Paul Castree (Disaster!), Richard Chamberlain (TV's The Thorn Birds), Charity Angél Dawson (Waitress), Fran Drescher (TV's The Nanny), J. Harrison Ghee (Kinky Boots), Gideon Glick (To Kill a Mockingbird), Lisa Howard (It Shoulda Been You), James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin), Cherry Jones (The Glass Menagerie), Francis Jue (Cambodian Rock Band, TV's Madam Secretary), Vicki Lewis (Anastasia), Telly Leung (Aladdin), Stanley Wayne Mathis (Nice Work If You Can Get It), Eric William Morris (King Kong), Michael Notardonato (Romeo & Bernadette), Okieriete Onaodowan (Hamilton, TV's Station 19), Kirsten Scott (Rock of Ages), Matthew Scott (An American in Paris), Michael James Scott (Aladdin), Evan Todd (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Mariand Torres (Wicked) and Michael Xavier (Sunset Boulevard).

There also will be special appearances by longtime Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS friends Danny Burstein, Judith Light, Billy Porter (who's also a member of the Broadway Cares Board of Trustees) and Michael Urie.

They join the previously announced lineup of Brooks Ashmanskas (The Prom), Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde), Robin de Jesús (The Boys in the Band), Stephanie Gibson (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Lana Gordon (Chicago), Alan H. Green (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Tony winner Jayne Houdyshell (The Music Man), Famke Janssen (X-Men), Jay Armstrong Johnson (The Phantom of the Opera), Joaquina Kalukango (Slave Play), Tari Kelly (Groundhog Day), Nathan Lane (The Producers), Norm Lewis (Once on This Island), Alyse Alan Louis (Amélie), Andrea Macasaet (Six the Musical), Kevin McHale (TV's Glee), Varla Jean Merman (Chicago), Jessie Mueller (Carousel), Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City), Royina Patel , Anthony Rapp (Rent), Krysta Rodriguez (Spring Awakening), SiriusXM host Seth Rudetsky , JK Simmons (Whiplash, TV's Law & Order), Robin Lord Taylor (TV's Gotham), Alysha Umphress (On the Town), Anna Uzele (Six the Musical) and Marisha Wallace (West End's Dreamgirls).

Watch the free stream at broadwaycares.org/elegies beginning at 5 pm Eastern on World AIDS Day, December 1. The stream also will premiere at 5 pm and 8 pm Eastern on Broadway on Demand. The show will be available through Saturday, December 5.

Created in the face of one pandemic and revived in another, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens features a book and lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Janet Hood . It premiered in 1989 as the AIDS crisis ravaged the country. Each monologue is written from the perspective of a character who died from AIDS. The songs represent the feelings of friends and family members dealing with the loss. It's a show where "joy and hope and love seeps from its every pore," as one reviewed noted. This stirring piece of theater history, shared this year on World AIDS Day, takes on new meaning amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The streaming of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is being directed by Bill Russell and Justin Ross Cohen and produced by Jim Kierstead and Broadway Virtual, Jim Head, Sainty & Eric Nelsen, Rusty & Molly Reid, The Worx Productions LTD, Linda Karn, Daniel Mitura/Jill Steinberg, Ann Moore/Jane Furse, and Justin Ross Cohen, in association with The Abingdon Theatre Company (Chad Austin, Artistic Director).

Music direction is by Janet Hood and casting is by Stephen DeAngelis.

The stream is free and donations will be accepted for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at broadwaycares.org/elegies2020. Every dollar donated will help those across the country affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses receive healthy meals, lifesaving medication, emergency financial assistance, housing, counseling and more. The donations also support and champion organizations focused on social justice and anti-racism.