Broadway Producers Come Together For Another $1 Million Challenge For BC/EFA's Emergency Assistance Fund

Just as donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund topped the $2 million mark, a second group of Broadway producers have stepped up to match all new donations up to $1 million at broadwaycares.org/help2020.

The health and financial challenges of entertainment industry professionals intensify with each day theaters remain dark and television and film production are shut down. Donations to Broadway Cares' special emergency fund, administered by The Actors Fund, are helping those onstage, backstage and behind the scenes receive a full safety net of urgent and vital services in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The group of producers coming together for this second $1 million challenge are represented on Broadway by hits such as Hadestown, West Side Story, Company, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lehman Trilogy, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Six, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, To Kill a Mockingbird, Come From Away, Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations, Beetlejuice, Mrs. Doubtfire, Mean Girls, The Minutes, Jagged Little Pill, The Book of Mormon and Dear Evan Hansen.

Inspired by the first $1 million match challenge, the theatrical production company No Guarantees (Christine Schwarzman & Darren Johnston) kicked off this second round by reaching out to their collaborators to form a New Group for a producers' match. The producers offering the second match are The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation; Deborah Barrera/Firemused Productions; Adam Blanshay & André Desmarais; Jamie deRoy; Barry Diller, David Geffen & Scott Rudin; Amanda Dubois; Wendy Federman; Barbara H. Freitag; Sonia Friedman; Getter Entertainment; Mara Isaacs; Junkyard Dog Productions; Kevin McCollum; No Guarantees; Fiona Rudin; Jayne Baron Sherman; Allison Thomas; Joop Van Den Ende and Ken & Liz Whitney. Kevin McCollum also serves on the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Board of Trustees.

With this producers' challenge, every new donation made to the emergency fund will continue to be matched dollar for dollar, up to $1 million. You can make your tax-deductible donation at broadwaycares.org/help2020.

Donors to Broadway Cares' COVID-19 fund already have helped The Actors Fund provide more emergency assistance in three weeks than it typically does in a year. Among the thousands getting help are a diabetic musician who lost all his gigs needing insurance assistance; actors with two young children and a third on the way needing food and rent support; and a director who needed temporary housing to self-quarantine after learning she'd been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

The first $1 million challenge was set by producers Spencer Ross, Rebecca Gold Milikowsky, Elizabeth Armstrong, Bill Damaschke, Diana DiMenna, Jeanne Donovan Fisher, S. Asher Gelman, John Gore & Lauren Reid/The John Gore Organization, Louise Gund, Judi Krupp, Larry & Beth Lenke, Carmen Pavlovic & Gerry Ryan, Marc Platt, Daryl Roth, Jordan Roth, Scott Rudin, Jeffrey Seller, Jana Shea, Iris Smith, David Stone and Barbara Whitman. Lauren Reid, Jordan Roth and David Stone also serve on the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Board of Trustees.

Broadway Cares launched the emergency fund March 17 with an initial $250,000. So far, more than $2 million has been raised, including $52,000 generated by Lin-Manuel Miranda during a special segment of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: At Home Edition. Another $73,000 was raised through a star-studded virtual reading of Lips Together, Teeth Apart streamed by Broadway.com on April 6, performed by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ari Graynor, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Zachary Quinto. The performance was in honor of playwright Terrence McNally, who passed away due to complications from COVID-19. The $2 million mark was hit late Sunday, April 12, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Broadway Goes Viral, led by actor Bruce Sabath.

With the new producers' challenge match, the goal for Broadway Cares' COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund has increased to $3 million.

The COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund is helping entertainment professionals meet coronavirus-related expenses. It provides urgent additional resources for the vital social service programs of The Actors Fund, including emergency financial assistance, health insurance, counseling and the operation of The Actors Fund's Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts.

From the emergency assistance fund, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has shared four payments of $500,000 each with The Actors Fund, sent March 17, March 26, April 1 and most recently on April 13 after the fund passed the $2 million mark.

The Actors Fund offers a wide safety net of programs for everyone in the performing arts and entertainment industry. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the single largest financial supporter of The Actors Fund's social service programs.

Thanks to the historic generosity of donors and supporters, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS awarded The Actors Fund $6.2 million in 2019. Since 1987, Broadway Cares has provided $101 million in support for The Fund's essential programs.