Schwartz and Strouse's Rags is Next World AIDS Day Concert

On December 11th, 2006, the 4th Annual World AIDS Day Concert, presented by Jamie McGonnigal in association with The Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation will take place. This year's presentation, a 20th Anniversary Concert of the Broadway musical Rags, will be held at Times Square's brand new Nokia Theater.

Rags, with music by Tony Award winner Charles Strouse (Bye, Bye, Birdie; Annie), lyrics by Academy and Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Prince of Egypt), and a book by Tony Award winner Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof, Zorba), premiered on Broadway in August of 1986. Though short-lived on Broadway with only 22 performances, Rags garnered 5 Tony nominations and leading lady, Teresa Stratas walked away with the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical.

The original cast featured several Broadway luminaries including Judy Kuhn (Les Miserables, Chess), Terrence Mann (Les Miserables, Beauty and The Beast), Lonny Price (Merrily We Roll Along, A Class Act), Marcia Lewis (Chicago, Annie), Dick Latessa (Follies, Hairspray), and Larry Kert (West Side Story, Company).

Rags "tells the story of Rebecca, an immigrant who finds herself and her young son, David, very much alone in the brand new world of America. Through Rebecca's encounters and relationships with others experiencing similar struggles, Rags tells of the American experience when the 'melting pot,' was an ideal many hoped to be a part of. In a time when immigration is a heavily debated topic, Rags reminds us of the intense struggle so many of our immigrant ancestors fought, to make this country what it is today," state press notes.

Stafford Arima (Altar Boys, West End Ragtime, The Secret Garden in Concert) will direct the concert and Mark Hartman (Avenue Q, Pippin and Children of Eden Concerts, Pippin National Tour) will serve as music director.

"The World AIDS Day Concerts were founded in 2003 by Jamie McGonnigal and Kate Shindle to help raise awareness of the health holiday, and to establish community within the theatre community. The inaugural concert marked the New York professional premiere of Stephen Schwartz and John Caird's Children of Eden, and was performed at the stunning Riverside Cathedral. The following year, the hit musical Pippin was presented starring Rosie O'Donnell, Charles Busch and a return to his Tony Award-winning role by Ben Vereen. A subsequent major regional production and national tour of the same show will take place this year. And finally, in 2005, a critically-acclaimed concert of Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman's The Secret Garden was performed.  All three sold-out concerts have managed to garner international acclaim while raising much-needed funds and awareness for organizations catering to the HIV/AIDS Community."

As with last year's event, the proceeds will be benefiting The Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation and Camp TLC (Teens Living with a Challenge), a residential summer camp program for teens living with HIV/AIDS. JDAF was created in 1996 by Carol DiPaolo, and her son Joey. When Joey was four (1984) he was infected with the HIV, (the virus that causes AIDS) from a blood transfusion during open-heart surgery. At age ten, Joey and family attended Camp Sunburst in California. Empowered and motivated by the camp experience both mother and son began public speaking in 1990 bringing AIDS education to parents, faculty, and students throughout the country. After becoming national AIDS spokespersons for several AIDS organizations, Carol and Joey decided to establish The Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation (JDAF). This foundation is motivated by compassion and hope for young people who are living with HIV/AIDS. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 51% of all new HIV infections in the U.S. occur in young people under 25, with that statistic in mind, Joey and Carol have provided over 500 AIDS prevention and education programs nationwide. With AIDS a serious global issue, JDAF is extending their Camp TLC program to positive teens living outside the US, in countries devastated by the AIDS pandemic.

Tickets for Rags will go on sale in October and sponsorship opportunities are available by emailing RagsConcert@aol.com.

For information on the past World AIDS Day events and eventually the most up-to-date info on this year's event, visit www.WorldAIDSDayConcert.org.  For more on JDAF, visit www.jdaf.org.