Photos: Ali Stroker, Darren Criss & More at SeriousFun Children's Network Gala

SeriousFun Children’s Network, the community serving children with serious illnesses, held its 2025 fundraising gala, A Night of SeriousFun, on Monday. The event took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center in honor of what would have been founder Paul Newman’s 100th birthday year. The evening offered a star-studded celebration with performances by incredible artists alongside SeriousFun campers.

The evening’s program included appearances by Ali Stroker, Darren Criss, Paul Rudd, Peter Gallagher, Matthew Broderick, NaTasha Yvette Williams, Adam Driver, Ayo Edebiri, Tom Hanks, and more. Take a look at photos from the night below!

Ali Stroker received a resounding standing ovation following performances of Be a Lion from The Wiz and A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman, for the latter of which she was joined by SeriousFun campers who sang with her. Darren Criss played both piano and electric guitar as he performed a mashup of two songs: Somewhere Only We Know and Don’t Stop Me Now, where he surprised audience members by weaving Paul Newman's name into the lyrics.

Matthew Broderick joined SeriousFun campers for a lighthearted game show where the campers shared famous film quotes and [Broderick] was tasked with identifying the film, with the last quote being, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t look around once in a while, you might miss it,” a nod to Broderick’s star-making role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Broadway's Peter Gallagher reminisced about meeting Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne, when [Peter] was 26 and doing a play in The Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT, Newman’s home state; later in [Peter’s] career, he appeared alongside Paul Newman in The Hudsucker Proxy. 

SeriousFun Children's Network is the leading network of medical specialty camps in the world, comprised of 30 camps and programs serving children with serious illnesses and their families, always free of charge. Following the founding of The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp by Paul Newman in 1988, he and other like-hearted individuals opened similar camps around the world, ultimately joining together to form SeriousFun Children's Network. 

Photo Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SeriousFun Children's Network