Des McAnuff & Pete Townshend to be Honored at ROCKERS ON BROADWAY 20, 11/11

The PATH Fund, Inc. presents ROCKERS ON BROADWAY 20 - Celebrating 20 Years (1993-2013) at SoHo's (le) Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, NYC) on Monday, November 11 at 7:30 PM. Tickets are on sale now.

This historic night will honor rock legend Pete Townshend (The Who's TOMMY) and director Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys), two visionaries who broke new artistic ground while bridging the gap between Rock & Roll and Broadway. An all-star cast of Broadway's finest (to be announced) will be backed by a full band, performing numbers from the event's first two decades.

Over two decades, ROCKERS ON BROADWAY has raised $300,000, with proceeds from 2013's event benefitting The ASCAP Foundation's Children Will Listen Program, The Broadway Dreams Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, says Cori Gardner, Executive Producer of The PATH Fund, the nonprofit organization that produces the event.

"ROCKERS ON BROADWAY 20 will feature the 20 best songs from the first 20 years," says event founder Donnie Kehr, currently in Los Angeles recreating his Broadway role of Norm Waxman in Clint Eastwood's film of Jersey Boys.

"This year, for our 20th anniversary, we're honoring Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff because they gave me the idea for the event," says Kehr. "Rock & Roll and Broadway were never a mix. They were able to change that."

Kehr worked with the legends when he appeared in The Who's TOMMY. "Rockers began because Pete wanted TOMMY's cast of Broadway performers to get some experience performing in rock clubs to understand what he did. So our first event actually had rock god Pete Townshend playing backup for Alice Ripley, Norm Lewis, Michael Cerveris, myself and others to help give our Broadway performances a rock n' roll edge. And that spirit has guided 20 years of ROCKERS ON BROADWAY."

Tickets for "ROCKERS ON BROADWAY 20" range from $30 to $250 and are on sale now. For more information and to purchase tickets online, visit www.rockersonbroadway.com or call (le) poisson rouge at (212) 505-FISH (3474).

Photo by Peter James Zielinski