Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Red Buckets Return To Theaters Today

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' traditional in-theater red bucket fundraising makes its long-awaited return today, Friday, March 18, 2022. Kicking off the fundraising this weekend are the companies of Broadway's Hamilton, The Lion King and Wicked.

Over the next six weeks, companies of Broadway, Off-Broadway and national touring shows will resume their decades-long tradition of encouraging audience donations that help provide nutritious meals, medication, health care, counseling and emergency financial assistance for those in need.

Also set to begin audience appeals today is the Off-Broadway company of The Play That Goes Wrong and The Life for New York City Center's Encores! series. Over the next two weeks, the Broadway companies of Aladdin, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Come From Away, Company, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, The Music Man, The Phantom of the Opera, Six and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical and the Off-Broadway productions of Jersey Boys and Little Shop of Horrors will join the in-theater fundraising efforts. Additional shows will be announced on the Broadway Cares social channels in the coming weeks.

When available, signed items and other exclusive memorabilia from participating shows will be available in the Broadway Cares eBay store: broadwaycares.org/ebay. Follow our eBay store to learn when items become available.

Donations support the emergency assistance and essential social service programs of The Actors Fund, helping everyone in entertainment, as well as provide critical funding for 450 local social service organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The return of the red buckets comes with additional health and safety procedures in place. Following The Broadway League and Actors Equity COVID protocols, no cast or crew members will be holding the red buckets. Broadway Cares staff and volunteers, all of whom have been fully vaccinated and will be masked, will welcome donations at theater exits.

Although in-theater appeals are back this spring, the two-day Easter Bonnet Competition performance, which typically celebrates the end of the spring fundraising efforts, will remain on hiatus until April 2023.

Despite the full in-theater fundraising pause brought about by the pandemic, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' grant-making has continued in earnest. Since March 2020, Broadway Cares has awarded $35 million in grants to The Actors Fund and 450 other social service organizations across the country. Just last month, Broadway Cares provided a record $2.5 million in grants to 127 food service and meal delivery programs nationwide, the first round of this year's national grants.

Earlier this month, Broadway Cares awarded $300,000 in emergency grants to immediately help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. On behalf of the entire Broadway and New York City theater community - those onstage, offstage and in the audience - Broadway Cares provided $100,000 each to Global Giving's Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, the International Rescue Committee and Project HOPE.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the philanthropic heart of Broadway, 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 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.