BC/EFA's EASTER BONNET Competition Kicks Off Today with Kristin Chenoweth and More

A bevy of Broadway's best, including Kristin Chenoweth, Gavin Creel, Andrea Martin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Helen Mirren, Matthew Morrison and more than 200 of Broadway and Off-Broadway's most talented performers, will come together this week for the 29th Annual Easter Bonnet Competition.

Presented by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, this year's Easter Bonnet Competition (#bwaybonnets) will be held at 4:30 pm today, April 20 and at 2 pm Tuesday, April 21 at Broadway's Minskoff Theatre, 200 West 45th Street, home to Disney's The Lion King.

Tickets start as low as $30. They are available online at broadwaycares.org. A limited number of tickets also will be available one hour prior to each performance in the lobby of the Minskoff Theatre.

The Easter Bonnet Competition is a two-day Broadway spectacular that features the companies of Broadway, Off-Broadway and touring productions singing, dancing and donning elaborate and often outrageous original bonnets.

Chenoweth (On the 20th Century), Miranda (Hamilton), Mirren (The Audience) and Morrison (Finding Neverland) will announce the top fundraising and best presentation awards at the Tuesday performance. Creel (The Book of Mormon) will close the show with a new arrangement of "Help is on the Way," BC/EFA's Easter Bonnet anthem written by David Friedman. Martin, joined by Seth Rudetsky, will introduce this year's judges.

Other stars scheduled to grace the stage throughout the competition include Broadway favorites Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Ann Harada; Adinah Alexander, Jen Perry and Daniel Stewart Sherman from Kinky Boots; Steven Boyer and "Tyrone" from Hand to God; Francesca Faridany and Alex Sharp from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Jasmine Cephas Jones, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Phillipa Soo from Hamilton; Rob McClure and Nancy Opel from Honeymoon in Vegas; Aaron Nelson and Alton Fitzgerald White from The Lion King; and Micah Stock from It's Only a Play.

The original opening number will be directed and choreographed by Rommy Sandhu and written by Stacia Fernandez and James Hindman. The show also will include a tribute to the 21 national touring productions participating in the Easter Bonnet Competition fundraising, choreographed by Charlie Williams.

This year's Easter Bonnet judges are The Actors Fund President and CEO Joseph Benincasa, Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn from Fun Home, Corey Cott and Vanessa Hudgens from Gigi, Robert Fairchild and director/choreographer Christopher Wheeldon from An American in Paris, Judith Ivey and Rufus Wright from The Audience, and Nathaniel Parker from Wolf Hall: Parts One & Two. Also joining the judging panel are Jake Perlman and Peg Wendlandt, who both won their spots by being high bidders on exclusive VIP packages at the 28th Annual Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction in September.

Productions scheduled to perform and present bonnets include Avenue Q, Chicago, Hand to God, Jersey Boys, Les Miserables, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, NEWSical The Musical and On the Town. The show will include a special performance by the all-male string quartet Well-Strung, representing Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, and an Al Blackstone-choreographed number for Dancers Responding to AIDS, both programs of Broadway Cares. There also will be special presentations and bonnets by BC/EFA's affiliate organizations: ASTEP, Broadway Green Alliance, Broadway Impact, Broadway Serves and R.Evolución Latina.

The Easter Bonnet Competition is the culmination of six intensive weeks of fundraising efforts by company members of Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring productions. Curtain speeches, bucket collections, autographed poster and program sales, auctions and cabaret performances bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars from audiences prior to the competition. The winner of the Easter Bonnet Competition will be the company that raises the largest amount of money for Broadway Cares. Awards are also presented to the Broadway play, national tour and Off-Broadway production raising the most money. The judges determine awards given to the company with the best bonnet design and presentation.

The 28 previous editions of the Easter Bonnet Competition have raised $58 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Last year's event raised $4,532,129.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised more than $250 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations in all 50 states and is the major supporter of the social service programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic.