BROADWAY BACKWARDS 2022 Adds Norm Lewis, Michael R. Jackson, Joaquina Kalukango, and More!

More than a dozen of Broadway's best have been added to the lineup performing songs from the musical theater canon through the lens of the LGBTQ+ experience at the in-person homecoming of Broadway Backwards, which is produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and benefits Broadway Cares and New York City's LGBT Community Center.

Newly named Tony Award nominees Michael R. Jackson and Joaquina Kalukango join a lineup that includes previously announced Matt Doyle, who also was nominated this week for a Tony Award.

Additional Broadway voices just added to the lineup include Veanne Cox, J. Harrison Ghee, Z Infante, Norm Lewis, Bill Nolte, Ken Page, Eve Plumb, John Riddle, MiMi Scardulla, BD Wong and the Broadway Inspirational Voices.

They join the previously announced Doyle, Alexandra Billings, Len Cariou, Jenn Colella, Claybourne Elder, Lena Hall, Lauren Patten, Bernadette Peters, George Salazar, Mary Testa, Brandon Uranowitz and Lillias White.

Colella, who hosted the last in-person performance in 2019 and starred in last year's virtual edition, will host the 2022 event. The LGBTQ+ celebration also will feature an ensemble performing fully staged production numbers and a live orchestra.

Broadway Backwards returns at 8 pm on Monday, May 23, 2022, to the stage of Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre (214 West 42nd Street, NYC).

This year's show will be written and directed by Broadway Backwards creator Robert Bartley. Mary-Mitchell Campbell serves as music supervisor and Ted Arthur as music director. Choreographers will include Bartley, Joshua Buscher-West, James Kinney and Adam Roberts. The production stage manager is Gregory R. Covert and the production supervisor is Jeff Brancato.

Broadway Backwards will feature costume design by Jeff Johnson-Doherty, John Kristiansen, Natalie Loveland and Tyler Carlton William, lighting design by Craig Stelzenmuller, prop design by Jenna Snyder and Alex Wylie, and sound design by Marie Renee Foucher. Benjamin A. Vigil is the COVID safety manager.

Broadway Backwards began as a grassroots concert performed at The Center in 2006. The event quickly grew and is now held annually in a Broadway theater. Since 2006, the evening has raised more than $6 million.

In 2020, Broadway Backwards was just four days away when the pandemic shut down theaters and most of New York City, forcing the event to be canceled. The 2021 virtual edition raised a record $749,555.

Major sponsors of Broadway Backwards include City National Bank, Paramount, United, A+E Networks, New York Marriott Marquis and The New York Times .

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 theater community, since 1988 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and other critical illnesses across the United States.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the major supporter of the social service programs at the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund), including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative and The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. Broadway Cares also awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., providing lifesaving medication, healthy meals, counseling and emergency assistance.

For more information, please visit Broadway Cares online at broadwaycares.org.