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Choosing a different theme each year, typically showcasing composers such as Leonard Bernstein, the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, S.T.A.G.E. calls on the best and the brightest talents in stage and screen to bring the production to life, and this year is no different. A tough act to follow after the 30th and 31st anniversary galas where STAGE went first to the movies and then back to Broadway from Hollywood with Love, this year director David Galligan and musical director Michael Orland bring us SONDHEIM No. 5.<\/p>\n
As recalled by stage and screen legend Carole Cook, making her 30th appearance at the S.T.A.G.E. LA event, \u201cWe called it \u2018the plague\u2019. They called it \u2018the gay disease\u2019. There wasn\u2019t even a name.\u201d The time was 1984. We would come to know the disease as AIDS. But in 1984, all anyone knew was that gay men were becoming ill and sadly, dying. What Michael Kerns and James Carroll knew was that someone had to do something to help ease the suffering and with that Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event was born. Calling on former Dramalogue scribe and theatre director David Galligan, the group began what is now a 32-year tradition of putting on a benefit with proceeds to benefit those afflicted with AIDS and their families in the Southern California area.<\/p>\n