Created to honor the victims and those wounded in the Orlando shooting massacre at Pulse nightclub, Broadway stars to record ‘What the World Needs Now is Love’.
Proceeds from sales of the single will benefit the LGBT Center of Central Florida and surrounding community, People magazine reported Wednesday.
The initiative – announced by Broadway Records president Van Dean, SiriusXM host Seth Rudetsky and producer James Wesley – is being produced at Avatar Studios.
“The Broadway community was so terribly shaken and devastated by the horrific tragedy in Orlando. Everyone wanted to do something as quickly as possible that would truly make a difference,” said Rudetsky, who will arrange the track’s vocals. “On Monday, my husband James woke me up at 7:30 a.m. and suggested we rally our friends and colleagues to do a ‘We Are the World’ type recording and raise money for the victims and their families. We started making calls and suddenly we had tons of theater actors along with an orchestra and the services of a fully staffed recording studio, all willing to donate their time and talent. Our community of artists has banded together as we always do to show we can end this cycle of violence and intolerance. Love WILL prevail!”
The digital download will be priced at $1.99, available at BroadwayRecords.com on June 20 and on iTunes shortly thereafter. An accompanying music video of the single also will be filmed and produced by Playbill.
Sara Bareilles, Roger Bart, Kristen Bell, Wayne Brady, Matthew Broderick, Michael Cerveris, Gloria Estefan, Sutton Foster, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Joel Grey, Sean Hayes, Heather Headley, Megan Hilty, Bill Irwin, Carole King, Jane Krakowski, Nathan Lane, Zachary Levi, Andrea Martin, Audra McDonald, Idina Menzel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jessie Mueller, Rosie O’Donnell, Kelli O’Hara, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie Perez, Bernadette Peters, Billy Porter, Chita Rivera, Lillias White, Marissa Jaret Winokur, BD Wong and more stars will join together their voices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami to record the benefit single.
