Media Alert

On June 30, the day of the protest marches across the country, Concert for America held a fundraising event at the Cooper Union in New York City that was streamed on their website and on Facebook Live.  It was to raise money for the ​Texas Civil Rights Project, ACLU Foundation of Texas, Al Otro Lado, and Florence Project.

For a short while, they had a video of the full concert online but I can't find it again.  They may have taken it down because they'll be streaming an encore presentation today at 6 PM Los Angeles time, which is of course 9 PM on the East Coast.  (CORRECTION: In earlier version, I incorrectly had this an hour earlier.)  I'm not exactly sure how to get to Facebook Live! -- but you may be able to get to it here.  However, the Concert for America now says it will be streaming on their site, as well, which is here.

The whole concert was a lovely presentation, though a bit rag-tag (hosted by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley) and some moments stood out far more.  I had marked down the times of places you might want to jump to for the highlights -- and I would think that the repeat video should be pretty close -- if not exactly the same -- as the video they had on their site.  If it is, then the timing marks with match up.  If they cut out the opening backstage material, then alas it will be off.  But at least the order of things will be right.  Here's the best I can do with the highlights to look for --

[NOTE: It's streaming now, and starting with Idina Menzel, so you can probably subtract 16 minutes from the times below.]

16:30 -- Idina Menzel

1:07 -- "The Apple Doesn't Fall (Too Far From the Tree)".  This was a song from the Kander & Ebb musical The Rink, which was performed by Chita Rivera sung with Liza Minelli who played her daughter.  In this clip, Chita Rivera recreates the number, singing with her real-life daughter, Lisa Mordente.

1:37 -- Audra MacDonald singing, "Climb Every Mountain" (which she performed in the live TV production of The Sound of Music.

1:56 -- a funny, charming, serious speech by Tina Fey

2:28 -- Brian Stokes Mitchell, who starred in the stage musical version of Ragtime (which I saw in its second U.S. production pre-Broadway) recreates his showstopping, "On the Wheels of a Dream" which he sings here in duet with Audra MacDonald.

2:33 -- Keala Settle repeats her performances of the Oscar-nominated song, "This is Me," which she sang in the film The Greatest Showman.

2:41 -- Patrick Wilson (who I recently featured in a duet of the National Anthem with Stephen Colbert), begins the finale of "Let the Sunshine In" for Hair, followed by co-host James Wesley and then the entire cast joins them on stage.

And just as a bit of an appetizer, here's a video -- from a bad angle, taken from the audience -- of Chita Rivera and her daughter singing "An Apple Doesn't Fall (Too Far from the Tree)".  By the way, Lisa Mordente has had a solid career, appearing in several Broadway musicals (including a Tony nomination as Best Leading Actress in a Musical, for the unsuccessful, Marlowe) and a few movies, but also behind the scenes as a choreographer, including the movie Sister Act.

To clarify, the concert video is far-better than this below.  But if you don't get to see the full thing, it beats having nothing...