Original AVENUE Q Stars To Reunite For STARS IN THE HOUSE FOR MAUI

Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley will welcome members of the original, Tony Award-winning company of the musical Avenue Q for a special edition of their lockdown roundtable series, Stars in the House.

Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Ann Harada, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Jordan Gelber, Jennifer Barnhart, Rick Lyons, and Ben Duracher will join Seth and James on Thursday, August 24, for a very special episode benefiting the The Hawaii Community Foundation and The Maui Humane Society, as they continue to battle devastation from ongoing wildfires. The company will perform a sing-through of the score as part of the special presentation!

Watch live at StarsInTheHouse.com.

These stars joins the incredible lineup of casts and talent that Seth and James have brought together to sing, share stories, and raise money to help those in need since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, including "ER," "The West Wing," "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," "Night at the Museum," "The Kids Are All Right," "Thirtysomething," "The Joy Luck Club," "Girls5eva," "Little House On The Prairie," "Knots Landing," "Melrose Place," "Frasier," "Family Ties," "The Waltons," "Glee," "30 Rock," "Desperate Housewives," "SCTV," "White Collar," "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," "Taxi," "Fame," and "Star Trek: Voyager;" plus iconic Broadway favorites "Spring Awakening," "Rent," "A Chorus Line," "Guys and Dolls," "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," "Mamma Mia," "LES MISERABLES," "AIDA," "Annie," "Godspell," "The Light In The Piazza," "Urinetown," "Fun Home," "The Prom," "Anastasia," "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella," and "The Full Monty." Jason Alexander, Wayne Brady, Lisa Kudrow, Ben Stiller, Chita Rivera, Kristin Chenoweth, Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond, Keala Settle, Randy Rainbow, Judith Light, Alex Newell, Leslie Uggams, Audra McDonald and Will Swenson, Peyton List, Patrick Wilson, Vanessa Williams, and Billy Porter are just some of the luminaries who have visited "Stars In The House" since the first show on March 16th, 2020.

As the creators and executive producers of "Stars In The House," Seth and James have brought a masterful combination of music, storytelling and community to each episode, ensuring that the show went on in viewers' homes even while performance venues across the world were closed.

"Stars In The House" airs new episodes on its YouTube channel and starsinthehouse.com. For more information and to see upcoming guests, please visit starsinthehouse.com and follow @StarsInTheHouse, Seth (@SethRudetsky) and James (@JamesWesleyNYC) on Twitter and Instagram.

ABOUT STARS IN THE HOUSE

"Stars in the House," which officially kicked off on March 16th, is a series that features stars of stage and screen singing or performing plays live (from home!) to promote support for charitable services for those most vulnerable to the effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Often joining Seth and James for the shows is Dr. Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for CBS News. Visit starsinthehouse.com to donate to The Entertainment Community Fund, watch previous episodes, learn about upcoming guests and more.

Since the first show, "Stars In The House" has raised $1,189,470 to benefit The Entertainment Community Fund, and over $600,000 for other charities including the International Rescue Committee, NAACP LDF, Trevor Project, Humane Society of New York, Waterkeeper Alliance, You Gotta Believe, Cancer Support Community, New York City Gay Men's Chorus, Youth Pride Chorus, and more - and continues to do so thanks to a generous donation from the Berlanti Family Foundation. Seth and James also received a special Drama Desk Award and a Gotham Icon Award from the Museum of the City of New York for keeping the theatre community connected, informed, and uplifted during the pandemic.

ABOUT THE ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNITY FUND

The Entertainment Community Fund is a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Fund serves everyone in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services.

Since March 2020, The Entertainment Community Fund has distributed more than $21.6 million to more than 16,300 people in need in the performing arts & entertainment community - thanks to support from so many generous people, including everyone in the Stars In The House family! This has helped people in financial crisis pay for basic living expenses such as essential medications, rent, food, utilities and other needs.

For the health and safety of everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Entertainment Community Fund has transitioned to online and phone-based services, which remain available for everyone in the performing arts and entertainment community. These services include: Artists Health Insurance Resource Center, The Career Center, Housing Resources, Addiction & Recovery, HIV/AIDS and Senior Services, Counseling and Emergency Financial Assistance, as well as The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. To make a tax-deductible donation to The Entertainment Community Fund, visit actorsfund.org/donate.

ABOUT Seth Rudetsky

Seth began working on Broadway as a pianist for shows like Les Miserables and Phantom Of The Opera. He soon connected with Hearts and Voices, an organization that brings live weekly performances to hospitalized people with AIDS and began volunteering for them in 1992, performing at: Rivington House, Roosevelt Island Hospital, the prison ward at St. Clare's Hospital and the Cardinal Cooke AIDS ward.

In 2001, he produced and conducted "Dreamgirls" starring Heather Headley, Audra McDonald and Lillias White, the first fall concert for The Actors Fund, which was recorded on Nonesuch Records and raised almost $1 million for The Fund. He then did "Funny Girl" with Idina Menzel and Jane Krakowski, "Chess" with Adam Pascal and Josh Groban, "Hair" with Jennifer Hudson (Ghostlight Records, Grammy nomination), "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" with Terrence Mann and Emily Skinner and "On The Twentieth Century" with Marin Mazzie, Doug Sills and Kathleen Turner. He also starred opposite Sutton Foster in The Actors Fund production of "They're Playing Our Song" and hosted and played piano for an array of divas for their 2009 Nothing Like A Dame concert with Betty Buckley, Stephanie J. Block, Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara and Bebe Neuwirth.

He is the afternoon Broadway host on SiriusXM Radio and recently co-wrote and co-starred in "Disaster!" on Broadway, which was co-produced by his husband, James. He was also a co-producer on the Broadway for Orlando recording of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and Voices for the Voiceless, he and his husband's annual fundraiser for You Gotta Believe, which helps older foster children find loving homes.

As a writer, he was nominated for three Emmy awards for comedy writing on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" and is the author of three volumes of "Seth's Broadway Diary" which has tons and tons of Inside Broadway stories (Dress Circle Publishing) and "My Awesome Awful Popularity Plan" and its sequel "The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek" (published by Random House), a young adult series about a teenaged gay kid named Justin Goldblatt, who's obsessed with theater and sports a Jewfro. In April of 2023, his newest book (and audiobook) "Musical Theatre For Dummies" was released to great acclaim.

He is the afternoon Broadway host on SiriusXM Radio and recently co-wrote and co-starred in "Disaster!" on Broadway, which was co-produced by his husband, James. Seth and James produced the all-star Broadway for Orlando recording of "What the World Needs Now Is Love," featuring Carole King, Gloria Estefan, Sara Bareilles, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Billy Porter. The song charted on the Billboard Hot 100, reached #1 on iTunes, and raised over $100,000 for the GLBT Center of Orlando. Seth and James also organized the group to sing at the Democratic National Convention in 2016.

Seth and James teamed up with Broadway superstar Audra McDonald, director Schele Williams, and Broadway Inspirational Voices' Joseph Joubert and Michael McElroy to release a very special recording and music video of the beloved song "Georgia On My Mind" to help to raise funds and awareness for Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight organization's work to ensure that every eligible Georgian has the resources and information they need to vote in the January 5th runoff election. The single is released by Broadway Records, and is available wherever digital music is sold and on BroadwayRecords.com. The video, which was directed by Schele Williams, is available for viewing via Fair Fight's YouTube Page.

Most recently, they collaborated with Williams on a special video celebrating the Inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, which aired during the January 20 special. Over 35 stars, including Chita Rivera, Betty Buckley, Chandra Wilson, Jessie Mueller, Laura Benanti, Leslie Uggams, Peppermint, Vanessa Williams, Wayne Brady, and more joined from the safety of their own homes to belt out two iconic Broadway songs: "Season of Love" from RENT, and "Let The Sunshine In" from HAIR.

ABOUT JAMES WESLEY

In addition to conceiving the idea for Broadway for Orlando, James created (and co-produced with Seth) Voices for the Voiceless on Broadway in 2015 starring Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Megan Hilty, Antwone Fisher, Charlene Tilton, Caroline Rhea, Darren Criss, Alec Mapa, Kate Shindle, and Eden Espinosa. It shined a spotlight on foster care in a unique and entertaining way, combining celebrity, music, and everyday people sharing their stories. The concert raised $500,000 for You Gotta Believe! and the Council on Adoptable Children.

The now-annual benefit concert for You Gotta Believe had its sixth edition in February 2020 at The Town Hal in New York City, starring Laurie Metcalf, Kelli O'Hara, Andrea Martin, and Brian Stokes Mitchell, among many others.

In response to concerns that marginalized people would suffer after 2016's presidential election, James co-produced and co- hosted a concert series called Concert for America with his husband. The first concert was held at The Town Hall in New York, New York January 20, 2017. Over the course of the series (13 in all), entertainment's biggest stars from Barry Manilow, Vanessa Williams, Chita Rivera, Melissa Manchester, Marcia Cross, and Grant Gustin, generously lent their voices to raise money for national organizations dedicated to protecting civil rights, women's health, and environmental protection.

As a writer, he wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway play, "Unbroken Circle", starring Eve Plumb and Tony nominees Anika Larsen and Jennifer Simard. He also wrote "Art and Science", a comedy-drama dealing with the generational differences between two gay men. It starred Tony nominees Tony Sheldon and John Tartaglia.

James was also proud to be one of the lead producers on Broadway of his husband's musical, "Disaster!"

James and Seth are the proud recipients of the National Leadership Award from the LGBTQ Task Force for their work on Broadway for Orlando's What the World Needs Now is Love. For their work on Stars in the House, they have received the Gotham Icon Award from the Museum of the City of New York, the Founders Award for Resilience from the Cancer Support Community and a Drama Desk Award.

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