Buckle Up for More BROADWAY DREAM ROLES

BROADWAY DREAM ROLES is heading back to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre this April, returning for a second year after its 2025 debut and quietly establishing itself as one of the more intriguing benefit nights on the New York theatre calendar. The concert will be held on Monday 20 April at 7pm at the Broadway house currently occupied by MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL, and once again it will be produced by and benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The premise is elegantly simple. Broadway performers step into parts they have always wanted to play, but never have, giving the evening a charge that is part concert, part confession.

That idea gives the event a different feel from the usual fundraiser built on big names alone. Broadway Cares says each number comes with a story, whether it is a role an artist nearly landed, a character that shaped them long before they reached Broadway, or a private wish that never made it onto a casting breakdown. That matters because it turns the night into something more intimate than a parade of star turns. The line-up for 2026 has not yet been announced, which only adds to the anticipation.

There is a practical side to the romance, of course. Tickets are currently being offered as a benefit for Broadway Cares’ major supporters, including Visionary Circle and Angels Circle members, the NextGen Network and the Colleen Dewhurst Legacy Society, with a very limited number of seats set to go on public sale from 31 March. Broadway Cares says Visionary Circle and Angels Circle members contribute $1,000 or more annually, while NextGen is designed for younger professionals and the Colleen Dewhurst group recognises planned giving. So Dream Roles works as both fundraiser and thank you, a polished night out that also reflects the donor culture sustaining so much of Broadway’s philanthropic machinery.

The first edition showed just how flexible the format can be. Staged on 28 April 2025 and hosted by Kara Young, the inaugural concert played to a standing room only crowd and assembled a cast that moved easily between Broadway royalty and newer names on the rise. Jennifer Holliday, Andrea Martin, Tom Francis, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Erich Bergen, Liz Callaway, Lesli Margherita, Jimin Moon, Zachary Noah Piser and Damson Chola Jr. all took part, while The Broadway Boys opened the evening with Any Dream Will Do. It was a fitting curtain raiser, but the real appeal of the show was never the neatness of the title. It was the odd, personal choices that followed.

Holliday used the concert to sing from MAME, revisiting a character she had cherished for years. Francis reached for Roger in RENT, linking the role to the rock music that first made musical theatre feel exciting to him. Andrea Martin finally stepped into Lucy from YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN after once auditioning for the part early in her career, while Lesli Margherita claimed King George from HAMILTON. Elsewhere, Erich Bergen moved from Jersey Boys’ Bob Gaudio into Frankie Valli’s spotlight, Zachary Noah Piser chose PIPPIN and Damson Chola Jr. tackled Make Them Hear You from RAGTIME. Jimin Moon brought a dose of delightful chaos with the Pokémon theme, and Rogers closed the night with Help Is on the Way, a song closely tied to Broadway Cares itself.

That blend of sincerity, absurdity and candour seems to be the event’s real identity. Dream roles can be glamorous, but they can also be funny, eccentric and deeply specific. Instead of feeling like stunt programming, the concert becomes a glimpse into how performers are shaped, not only by the jobs they book, but by the parts they miss and the scores they keep returning to in private. In an industry obsessed with type, category and fit, there is something quietly appealing about making a stage for artistic longing.

It also helps that the cause is substantial enough to anchor the evening. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS describes itself as one of the country’s leading industry based nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grantmaking organisations. Since 1988, it says it has awarded more than $300 million for essential services for people living with HIV/AIDS and facing other critical illnesses in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. The organisation also supports key programs at the Entertainment Community Fund and awards annual grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organisations nationwide.

Seen in that light, the return of BROADWAY DREAM ROLES makes perfect sense. It is intimate enough to feel revealing, glossy enough to feel like an occasion and purposeful enough to justify the excitement around it. With the 2026 cast still under wraps, the event’s strongest selling point is the one built into its title. Everyone watching gets to speculate, not just about who will appear, but about who they might become for a single night. That is a lovely premise for a concert, and an even better one for a benefit.