Theater News

Eden Espinosa, David A. Austin, et al. Cast in Rags Benefit Concert

Eden Espinosa(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)
Eden Espinosa
(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)

Eden Espinosa will play Bella and David A. Austin will play Ben in the World AIDS Day benefit concert presentation of the musical Rags at the Nokia Theater in Times Square on Monday, December 11. The performance will also feature Struan Erlenborn as David, Max Von Essen as an American, and Stacia Fernandez as Rosa. Further casting will be announced shortly.

This will be the fourth annual World AIDS Day staged concert presented by Jamie McGonnigal in association with The Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation. Stafford Arima (Altar Boyz) and Mark Hartman (Avenue Q) will serve as director and musical director, as they did for last year’s concert performance of The Secret Garden. The design team for Rags includes Traci Klainer (lighting), Walter Trarbach and Tony Smolenski (sound), David Korins (sets), and Michael Bottari and Ronald Case (costumes). Patricia Wilcox will choreograph the show.

Rags has music by Tony Award winner Charles Strouse (Bye Bye Birdie, Annie), lyrics by Academy Award and Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell), and a book by Tony winner Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof, Zorba). The musical tells the story of Rebecca, an immigrant who finds herself alone in America with her young son and goes through the “melting pot” experience. Though Rags had only a very brief run on Broadway in 1986, it received five Tony nominations, and leading lady Teresa Stratas won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical.

Espinosa has starred on Broadway in Wicked and Brooklyn. Austin played Jeff Bennet in the Off-Broadway musical I Love You Because. Erlenborn had leading roles in last year’s World AIDS Day concert of The Secret Garden and in the Broadway production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Von Essen’s Broadway credits include Dance of the Vampires and Les Misérables. Fernandez is a member of the company of The Drowsy Chaperone; she was also seen on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast, Swing!, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Off-Broadway in Lone Star Love.

Proceeds from the Rags concert will benefit The Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation and Camp TLC (Teens Living with a Challenge), a residential summer camp for young people with HIV/AIDS. For more information, visit www.WorldAIDSDayConcert.org.