Todrick Hall and Tony nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers have been added to the performer lineup for Black Theatre United's fourth annual gala, "Work to Do," at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Monday, October 5.
Todrick Hall and Tony nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers perform at the fourth annual Black Theatre United gala, held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Monday, October 5. Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose makes a special appearance, as do Billy Porter, a founder of the organization and a winner of the Emmy, the Grammy and the Tony, and Tony-winning costume designer Qween Jean.
Danielle Brooks, an Academy Award and Tony nominee, and Richard Jay Alexander join the evening as honorary co-chairs.
They join a lineup announced earlier, which has Wayne Brady, Jonathan Burke, Darius de Haas, Sydney James Harcourt, Dava Huesca, Capathia Jenkins, Keehnon Jackson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Vanessa Williams and NaTasha Yvette Williams performing, with special appearances from Carin Ford, LaChanze, Norm Lewis, Wendell Pierce and Tamara Tunie.
The gala honors three figures under this year's theme, "Work to Do." George Cheeks, chair of Paramount TV Media, receives the Accountability Award; Delroy Lindo, an Academy Award nominee, receives the Advocacy Award; and costume designer Paul Tazewell, who holds a Tony and an Academy Award, receives the Lifetime Achievement Award. Black Theatre United frames the theme as a refusal to slow down at a moment when the ground Black and brown artists have won feels contested, and the evening celebrates what Black artists and Black culture have made of Broadway.
Jerry Dixon directs the gala, Joseph Joubert is music director and Patrick Tully serves as auctioneer.
Mathew Knowles, Gena Avery Knowles and Priscilla Sims Brown are co-chairs. Alongside Brooks and Alexander, the honorary co-chairs are Steven Reineke, Karine Jean-Pierre, Qween Jean, Mister Fitzgerald, Michael Oloyede, Ezra Ezzard, Kara Young, Josh Groban, Ann James and Sonia Manzano.
The BTU Collective, a group of artists and industry figures who work on the organization's programs through the year, is represented at the gala by co-chairs Lakisha May and Michael Oloyede, with Kaliswa Brewster, Kalyne Coleman, Ezra Ezzard, Mister Fitzgerald, Erica Hart and Nikiya Mathis.
Black Theatre United was founded in 2020 by actors, directors, musicians, writers, technicians, producers and stage managers to open access and opportunity for Black artists and for industry professionals long kept at the margins of the theater.
The 501(c)(3) runs the BTU Rise marketing and press internship, the New Deal for Broadway, the Business of Show discussion series, community town hall events, the BTU Designer Initiative, the Marva Hicks Musical Theatre Scholarship and the Broadway Bound educational program. Proceeds from the gala support that work.
Tables start at $10,000 and the organization says they are close to sold out. Details are at BlackTheatreUnited.com.
