"Late Night" host Jimmy Fallon will welcome cast members from Memphis, American Idiot, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Promises, Promises beginning Sept. 13.
Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong will introduce the cast of his Tony-nominated musical American Idiot on Sept. 15; and the cast of the emo-rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, including leading man Benjamin Walker, will sing Sept. 16.
[Full article at Playbill.com]
LOS ANGELES (AP) — George Clooney, Will Smith and Gwyneth Paltrow will join an impressive list of stars taking part in September's "Stand Up to Cancer" telethon airing on major networks.
Other celebrities announced Wednesday include Denzel Washington, Renee Zellweger, Kathy Bates and Richard Branson. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Edwards were previously announced as participants.
Performers will include Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Neil Diamond, The Edge, Herbie Hancock, Lady Antebellum and Leona Lewis. Queen Latifah, Martina McBride and Stevie Wonder were among those already announced.
Clooney, in particular, is a fundraising heavyweight. At Sunday's Emmy Awards, he accepted the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for efforts on behalf of victims of this year's earthquake in Haiti, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Stand Up to Cancer" is aimed at raising money to speed up innovative cancer research, according to movie producer Laura Ziskin ("Spider-Man"), who is a cancer survivor and co-founder of the Stand Up to Cancer group.
The telethon is returning for a second time after the 2008 event helped deliver more than $100 million for research.
This year's telethon will be simulcast commercial-free (8 p.m.-9 p.m.
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong will appear at post-show Q&A sessions for American Idiot September 14-17 and again on September 19. Armstrong will be joined on the St. James Theatre stage by Idiot director Michael Mayer, as well as members of the cast and creative team. Time Out New York's David Cote will moderate.
"Whenever they’re in New York, [Green Day] drops in to see us," Idiot star John Gallagher Jr. told Broadway.com in June. "There are no words to describe how generous they’ve been. What we do every night couldn’t happen without what they’ve given us personally."
Armstrong collaborated with Mayer to write the rock opera's book, which follows three disenchanted twentysomething men trying to find their way in a post 9/11 world. American Idiot currently stars Gallagher Jr. as Johnny, Michael Esper as Will, Stark Sands as Tunny, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Whatshername, Christina Sajous as The Extraordinary Girl, Mary Faber as Heather and Tony Vincent as St. Jimmy. Based on the popular Green Day album of the same name, the musical opened on April 20 at the St. James Theatre and won two Tony Awards.
[Full article at Broadway.com]
