wfn.org | BENEFIT PERFORMANCE BY BROADWAY STARS

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

28-Aug-95

95298         BENEFIT PERFORMANCE BY BROADWAY STARS  
    AT PEACEMAKING JUBILEE RAISES THOUSANDS FOR RWANDA RELIEF 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.--Performing songs from a number of Broadway hits in which 
they appear, a 10-member troupe of New York musical stars presented a 
tour-de-force benefit concert at the Presbyterian Peacemaking Jubilee here 
Aug. 14 that raised $13,725 for UNICEF's relief work in Rwanda. 
 
     "Broadway Sings for a Just Peace" featured songs from "Les 
Miserables," "Guys and Dolls," "Sunset Boulevard," "Fiddler on the Roof" 
and several other hit musicals. 
 
     Director Lee Tannen introduced the troupe's performance as "an 
offshoot" of its annual performances to benefit children with AIDS and 
children whose parents have AIDS.  The organizers of those performances, 
"Broadway Sings on Park Avenue," are Broadway star Tim Shew, a Presbyterian 
deacon, and his pastor, the Rev. William Pindar, pastor of Central 
Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue in Manhattan. 
 
     Shew and his late wife, Marcia, started the "Broadway Sings" troupe 
four years ago, when Marcia was diagnosed with AIDS following a tainted 
blood transfusion.  She died last year.   
      
     With Pindar's help, the annual concerts, staged at Central Church, 
raise thousands of dollars for AIDS-related agencies in New York that 
address the special needs of children affected by the pandemic. 
 
     Shew and Pindar (who performs as a clown) also conduct a ministry of 
comedy and music for the families and caregivers of terminally ill patients 
in hospitals throughout the New York area. 
 
     "The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program is very thankful to the 
performers in "Broadway Sings" for their contribution to helping 
Presbyterians continue their tradition of participating in the work of the 
U.N.," said the Rev. Richard Killmer, coordinator for the program. 
 
     The cast -- Shew, Jane Brockman, Leslie Castay, Bobby Clark, Catherine 
Dupuis, Dale Hensley, Michelle Pawk and John Norman Thomas -- and their 
musical director, Phil Reno, concluded their performance to thunderous 
applause with a chorus, written by David Friedman,  that typified the 
spirit of the evening: 
 
                        Help is on the Way 
             From places you don't know about today, 
              From friends you may not have met yet 
                      Believe me when I say 
                   I know, Help is on the Way!" 
 
 

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