Seventh Annual LIVING FOR TODAY Set for Joe's Pub, 10/27

Head on downtown for the seventh annual Living for Today: "Shing-a-Ling: A Night with the Broadway Urchins" at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette St) on Monday, October 27 at 7pm for a concert that will make you "feel the sturm und drang in the air!" After bringing down the house at the sixth annual concert in January 2014 with a surprise appearance, the three 'urchins' from the Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors (Carla J. Hargrove, Trisha Jeffrey, DeQuina Moore) take to the stage in a concert of their very own, featuring hits from the radio, the stage, and of course from the musical that brought them together. The concert benefits Gilana's Fund, which celebrates and encourages educational programming promoting acceptance and understanding of our communities, each other, and ourselves. To date the Fund has raised more than $40,000. The annual Living for Today concert series is produced and directed by David Alpert (If/Then, The Trip to Bountiful, The Best Man) with musical direction by Jason Wetzel(After Midnight) and has welcomed such stars as Idina Menzel, Vanessa Williams, Candice Bergen, Alice Ripley, Tituss Burgess, LaChanze, Tony Yazbeck, Lena Hall, Aaron Lazar, Jim Walton, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, and many more. Tickets ($20 - $75) go on sale August 15 at joespub.com. For more information, visit facebook.com/livingfortodaynyc or gilanasfund.com.

"This concert and Gilana's Fund are incredibly special to me. Not only are we raising money to help fund educational programming promoting acceptance, but we are honoring my sister's memory. To have my friends from the Broadway community join me in this effort is amazing, and I am so thankful to them, as well as our audiences over the years, for coming together to celebrate acceptance," notes director and producer David Alpert. "I'm thrilled to have Carla, Trisha and DeQuina with us again, I couldn't ask for more talented, caring or giving performers. Their performance in the last concert was show-stopping-I'm certain that they're going to blow the roof off of Joe's Pub."

Gilana's Fund was established through the Community Foundation for Muskegon County (MI) in 2007, created shortly after the passing of Gilana Alpert at the age of 26. The fund, which has raised more than $40,000, celebrates and encourages educational programming promoting acceptance and understanding of our communities, each other, and ourselves. Now in its seventh year, Living for Today (LFT) was created in 2008 by Gilana's brother David, a New York City-based director, as a way to raise money for his sister's Fund. The first three sold-out concerts were held at the Laurie Beechman Theater in Midtown Manhattan, and for its fourth year, LFT moved downtown to the historic Joe's Pub.

Past recipients of funding from Gilana's Fund include: Advocates for Youth, Bloomington Playwrights' Project, A Broader Way, Howard Brown Health Center, the Indiana University Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alumni Association Emergency Scholarship Account, The Kinsey Institute, Shoah Remembrance Committee of Muskegon, Society for Women's Health Research, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, The Trevor Project, U.S.C. Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's National Institute for Holocaust Education.