FOR RELEASE ON FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2020
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOEL GREY!
“STARS IN THE HOUSE”
IN SUPPORT OF
THE ACTORS FUND
AND THEIR SERVICES FOR THOSE IN NEED IN
PERFORMING ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
WILL CELEBRATE JOEL GREY’S 88TH BIRTHDAY
WITH SETH RUDETSKY (AT THE 88’s),
JAMES WESLEY & KRISTIN CHENOWETH
PLUS SPECIAL SURPRISE GUESTS!
TOMORROW NIGHT!
New York, NY (April 10, 2020) – Stars in the House, the daily online show to benefit The Actors Fund, is proud to welcome the legendary Tony and Academy Award winner, Joel Grey, to tomorrow evening’s show, (Saturday, April 11 at 8 p.m. ET.), on the occasion of his 88th birthday, and to salute Grey for his unparalleled career. Surprise guests will join the virtual birthday celebration throughout the show.
And on SIRIUS-XM Radio, host Julie James and company will honor Grey by playing him each hour throughout the day tomorrow, as well as on “Sunday Funday with John Tartaglia” this Sunday, April 12.
Stars in the House, which officially kicked off on March 16th is a daily series that features stars of stage and screen singing and performing live (from home!) to promote support for The Fund’s services for those most vulnerable to the effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Joining Seth and James for the shows is Dr. Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for CBS News. Visit starsinthehouse.com for more info and to learn about upcoming guests. Since the first show, Stars in the House has raised more than $174,300 to benefit The Actors Fund.
In addition to its regular twice-a-day streaming and ability for viewers to watch it on their own time, Stars in the House, has now also teamed up with SiriusXM. SiriusXM will be the exclusive audio broadcasting partner delivering the show to listeners daily on Volume (channel 106) and On Broadway (channel 72). SiriusXM subscribers can catch Stars in the House weekday mornings at 9:00 a.m. ET on Volume channel 106, with favorite program excerpts airing throughout the day on SiriusXM’s On Broadway channel 72. Listeners can also follow Seth on Seth Speaks and Seth’s Big Fat Broadway, two regularly scheduled programs that air on SiriusXM’s On Broadway channel. Stars in the House will air commercial-free on SiriusXM. The program is available to subscribers nationwide on SiriusXM radios, and those with streaming access can listen on demand on the SiriusXM app, and at home on a variety of connected devices. For more info to activate your streaming access or to sign up for a trial subscription, go to www.SiriusXM.com/AtHome.
With shutdowns on Broadway and in film and television, theater, concerts, dance, music and many other areas of entertainment, the need is great and growing. Since March 18th, The Actors Fund has provided $1,012,552 in emergency financial assistance to 850 people who work in performing arts and entertainment. This emergency financial assistance is helping those in financial crisis with assistance for basic living expenses such as essential medications to help prevent infections to pay for food or utilities and other needs.
As the situation with Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, The Actors Fund has temporary transitioned to online and phone-based services, which remain available for everyone in the performing arts and entertainment community.
These services include: Artists Health Insurance Resource Center, The Career Center, Housing Resources, Addiction & Recovery, HIV/AIDS and Senior Services, Counseling and Emergency Financial Assistance, as well as The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
To make a tax-deductible donation to The Actors Fund, visit www.actorsfund.org/Donate.
The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Fund serves everyone in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services.
BIOGRAPHIES
Joel Grey (Actor). In a career that was launched in the early 1950’s, Joel Grey has created indelible stage roles each decade since. Grey made his theatrical debut at the age of 9 in the Cleveland Playhouse production of On Borrowed Time (and recently directed a production of the play for Two River Theater Company’s 20th Anniversary Season). He made his Broadway debut exactly two decades later as a replacement in Neil Simon’s first comedy hit, Come Blow Your Horn (1961). Other Broadway: Stop the World I Want to Get Off, Half a Sixpence, Cabaret (Tony Award), George M! (Tony nomination), Goodtime Charley (Tony nomination), The Grand Tour (Tony nomination), Chicago (Drama Desk Award), Wicked, Roundabout Theatre Company’s Tony Award-winning revival of Anything Goes, and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Joel’s dramatic stage roles include Marco Polo Sings a Solo; the Roundabout Theatre production of Give Me Your Answer, Do! (Drama Desk nomination); New York City Opera’s Silverlake (directed by Harold Prince) and Larry Kramer’s seminal The Normal Heart at the Public Theatre, which he also co-directed with George C. Wolfe in its Broadway premiere (Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination). Joel recently directed the lauded production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.
Joel received the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and the British Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1972 film version of Cabaret (directed by Bob Fosse). He is one of only nine actors to have won both the Tony and Academy Award for the same role. Other film credits include Man on A Swing, Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians, The Seven Percent Solution, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka, Altman’s The Player, The Music of Chance, Michael Ritchie’s adaptation of The Fantasticks, Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark and Clark Gregg’s Choke. Recent television appearances include “Brooklyn Bridge” (Emmy nomination), “OZ,” “Law and Order: CI,” “House,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Private Practice,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Warehouse 13,” and “CSI.” In 2010, Joel was honored for his illustrious television career by The Paley Center for Media in both NYC and Los Angeles.
Joel is also an accomplished photographer. He has five books of photographs, Pictures I Had to Take (2003), Looking Hard at Unexamined Things (2006), 1.3 – Images From My Phone (2009), and The Billboard Papers (2013) and The Flower Whisperer. His memoir, Master of Ceremonies, was published in February 2016 (Flatiron).
Joel most recently directed the acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish which won the 2019 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revival, the 2019 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Revival, a 2019 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award Special Citation.
Seth Rudetsky has been helping raise money for the Actors Fund since 2001 when he began his yearly concerts that included Dreamgirls with Audra McDonald, Heather Headley, Lillias White and Billy Porter, Funny Girl with Sutton Foster and Idina Menzel, Chess with Josh Groban and Adam Pascal and more. James Wesley and Seth have been married since 2012 and have been working together constantly on projects to raise money and awareness for a number of social justice organizations. In 2016, they formed their 501c3 called Your Kids, Our Kids with its initial mission being to directly help one of the most vulnerable populations in our society — children — through creative means. Voices for the Voiceless: Stars for Foster Kids is one of their yearly projects, raising millions for You Gotta Believe which helps find families for older foster youth. These concerts have starred celebs like Tina Fey, Rosie Perez and Chita Rivera. In June of 2016, they organized Broadway for Orlando in the wake of the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub. Uniting the Broadway community to sing “What the World Needs Now is Love” (in the style of “We Are the World”), the single featured over 50 Broadway stars like Bernadette Peters, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sara Bareilles and charted on Billboard’s Hot 100, selling over 50,000 copies and raising over $100,000 for the Orlando LGBT community. On January 20, 2017, they presented the first edition of Concert for America, which premiered at The Town Hall in NYC, raising money and awareness for civil rights organizations, as well as infusing Americans with hope and inspiration and the desire to become more active citizens. To date, there have been 13 editions performed around the country, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Atlanta. James and Seth are the proud recipients of the 2016 National Leadership Award from the LGBTQ Task Force for their work on Broadway for Orlando’s What the World Needs Now is Love. In 2018, Seth and James also received the NYCLU Liberty Award for their contributions to the LGBT community.
www.actorsfund.org
www.starsinthehouse.com
