Rialto Chatter: Jackman and Craig Auction Undershirts on Stage for BC/EFA

Audience members in the audience on Friday night at A Steady Rain have reported to BroadwayWorld.com that with Hugh Jackman acting as auctioneer, along with Daniel Craig, the pair auctioned off their undershirts for a total of $10,000 for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, with two matching $5,000 bids. Jackman did the same thing during his BOY FROM OZ days as part of BC/EFA's fundraising efforts. 

A Steady Rain is a new American two-character play by Keith Huff, directed by Tony Award nominee John Crowley.  It began previews on Thursday, September 10, 2009, opened on Broadway on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 and runs through Sunday, December 6, 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

A Steady Rain tells the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and their differing accounts of a few harrowing days that changed their lives forever.

A Steady Rain is produced on Broadway by Frederick Zollo, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Raymond L. Gaspard, Frank Gero, Cheryl Wiesenfeld, Jeffrey Sine, Michael Rose Ltd, The Shubert Organization, Inc. and Robert Cole. Set and costume design are by two-time Tony Award winner Scott Pask, with lighting design by two-time Tony Award nominee Hugh Vanstone and original music and sound design by Mark Bennett.

Tickets range from $140.00 to $66.50. The performance schedule for A STEADY RAIN is as follows: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are also available at www.telecharge.com (212.239.6200). 

Daniel Craig (Joey) A highly accomplished stage actor, Daniel's theatre credits include leading roles in Hurlyburly with the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic, Angels in America at The National Theatre, and A Number at The Royal Court Theatre. Born in 1968 in Chester and raised near Liverpool, Daniel was first introduced to theatre at The Liverpool Everyman. When he reached his late teens, he moved to London to join the National Youth Theatre before continuing his training at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has since secured roles in television, theatre and film, and has gone on to become regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. In 2006 Mr. Craig became the sixth ‘James Bond' in Casino Royale, for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination (Best Actor) and the film became the highest grossing in the history of the 007 franchise. 2008 saw Daniel's second outing as James Bond in Quantum of Solace directed by Marc Forster, which became the highest grossing of the 22 films in the Bond franchise in America and Canada. Mr. Craig has recently finished making Steven Spielberg's new film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. Earlier this year he was seen in Edward Zwick's critically acclaimed film Defiance. In 2008 audiences saw Daniel in The Golden Compass and Flashbacks of a Fool directed by Baillie Walsh. In 2005 audiences saw him in Stephen Spielberg's Oscar nominated Munich, Douglas McGrath's Infamous for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination (Best Supporting Actor), Matthew Vaughn's directorial debut Layer Cake, in a supporting role in The Jacket and in Roger Michell's critically acclaimed Enduring Love, (based on the novel by Ian McEwan). Prior to Enduring Love, he starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow as Ted Hughes in Sylvia. In 2003 Daniel was seen starring in The Mother, based on a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Roger Michell. In 2002 he garnered much critical acclaim for his role in Sam Mendes' The Road to Perdition. Daniel's earlier film credits include Elizabeth, Love and Rage and Love is the Devil among others. Daniel has numerous television credits including notable projects such as the BBC's adaptation of Michael Frayn's award-winning drama "Copenhagen," "Our Friends in the North" and "Archangel." Daniel Craig is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association.

Hugh Jackman (Denny) Australian native Hugh Jackman won a 2004 Tony Award, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards for Best Actor in a musical for his portrayal of the 1970s singer-songwriter Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz. Previous theater credits include Carousel at Carnegie Hall, Oklahoma! at the National Theater in London (Olivier Award nomination), Sunset Boulevard (MO Award - Australia's Tony Award) and Disney's Beauty and the Beast (MO Award nomination). From 2003 through 2005 he hosted the Tony Awards, winning a 2004 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical or Comedy program. Mr. Jackman made his first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in the first installment of the X-Men franchise, a role he reprised in the enormously successful X2 and 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. Most recently, he reprised his role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine which serves as a prequel to the popular series and grossed an outstanding $85 million domestically in its first weekend of release in May 2009. On February 22, 2009, Jackman took on the prestigious role of Oscar host as he fronted the 81st Annual Academy Awards. Live from the Kodak, he wowed those in attendance and helped ABC score a 13% increase in viewer ship from the previous year. In late 2008, Jackman appeared in 20th Century Fox's romantic action-adventure epic Australia directed by Baz Luhrmann. The film, set in pre-WWII northern Australia, sees Jackman as a rugged cattle driver who assists an English aristocrat (played by Nicole Kidman) in driving a herd of 2000 cattle across hundreds of miles of rough terrain where they must also face the Japanese bombing of Darwin, Australia. In early 2008, Jackman was seen in the 20th Century Fox film Deception opposite Ewan McGregor. The dark film explores the mystery of a woman's disappearance and a multi-million dollar heist. In 2006 Jackman formed Seed Productions with his producing partners John Palermo and Deborra-Lee Furness. Deception was Seed's first feature. Additionally that year, Jackman was the recipient of ShoWest's Male Star of the Year award. Recently, Jackman has starred in Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, and Woody Allen's Scoop. In addition, he lent his voIce To the animated features Happy Feet and Flushed Away. Other leading roles include Someone Like You, Swordfish, Van Helsing, and Kate and Leopold, for which he received a 2002 Golden Globe nomination. Jackman's career began in Australia in the independent films "Paperback Hero" and "Erskineville Kings" (Australian Film Critics' Circle Best Actor award and The Australian Film Institute Best Actor nomination). In 1999, he was named Australian Star of the Year at the Australian Movie Convention. Hugh Jackman is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association.

Keith Huff (Playwright) is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, holds an MFA from the University of Iowa's Playwright's Workshop, and is the recipient of a Jeff Award, a Drama-Logue Award, the Cunningham Prize, the John Gassner Award, the Berrilla Kerr Award, and three Illinois Arts Council Playwriting Fellowships. He has developed plays at The O'Neill Theatre Center National Playwrights Conference, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage and Film, Steppenwolf, Berkeley Rep, The Eureka Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, Wooly Mammoth, Eye of the Storm, Echo Theatre, Act One/Showtime, Alice's 4th Floor, Florida Studio Theatre, WordBridge Playwrights Laboratory, and Midwest PlayLabs. His plays have been produced Off-Broadway, internationally, and nationally. A STEADY RAIN, developed at the NY Stage and Film Powerhouse Mainstage in 2006, played to critical acclaim during its sold-out 6-week run at Chicago Dramatists in 2007 and received Jeff Awards for New Work and Best Production in 2008. Veteran Broadway/Off-Broadway producers Frank Gero, Ray Gaspard, Jono Gero (Oleanna, Extremities, On Golden Pond, The Miss Firecracker Contest, Les Liaisons Dangereuse, Our Country's Good) and Tony Award winning producer Fred Zollo (Frozen, Caroline, or Change, Angels in America, the Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, Buried Child, Night Mother, On Golden Pond) mounted an extended commercial run at Chicago's Royal George Theater earlier this year. Keith's newest play, Pursued By Happiness, was recently produced at Steppenwolf Theater as part of the First-Look Festival of New Plays. His not-so-new plays, The Bird and Mr. Banks, opened at The Road Theater in LA in January, and Mud People is currently running at Chicago's Mary-Arrchie Theatre through July 12, 2009. Recent productions of other plays include Dog Stories at Stageworks/Hudson, Deep Blue Sea with CollaborAction at Steppenwolf, Harry's Way and Prosperity at Riverside Theater, Karaoke Night at The Hog at Chicago Dramatists and Bloomington Playwrights Project, and Leon & Joey at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Gray City was recently workshopped in Chicago with Premiere Theater and Performance and Chicago Dramatists as well as at American Repertory Theater in Boston.

John Crowley (Director) An award-winning theater director in his native Ireland, John Crowley has also served as associate director for London's Donmar Warehouse. He received a 2005 Tony nomination for his work on The Pillowman. His recent work includes the National Theatre's original production of The Pillowman, On an Average Day and Macbeth in the West End and The Turn of the Screw for Welsh National Opera. Productions at the Donmar Warehouse include Tales From Hollywood, Juno and the Paycock, The Maids, How I Learned to Drive and Into the Woods. For the National: Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards. For the RSC: Shadows. Other productions include John Hughdy/Tom John and The Blue Macushla for Druid Theatre Company, One for the Road and Phaedra at the Gate Theatre Dublin, True Lines and Double Helix for Bickerstaffe Theatre Company and The Crucible, Asylum! Asylum! and Six Characters in Search of an Author for The Abbey Theatre, Dublin. He made his feature film directorial debut with Intermission (2004), starring Colin Farrell. For his efforts, Crowley won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Film Director and the film also won the Audience Award as best first feature at the Galway Film Festival. For his second film, Boy A (2008), Crowley won a BAFTA award for Best Director. In May 2005 Crowley, along with Danny Boyle, launched the UK Film Council Development Fund's "25 Words or Less: Director's Cut" scheme to develop a feature film project, stating that he wanted particularly to "create a contemporary 'rebirth' or transformation story about a man or woman who begins as someone that spreads coldness."