Longoria Hosting Special Night of Music to Raise Funds for Homeless LGBT Youth

Michael Longoria is singing for Homeless LGBT Youth…

The Mexican-American Broadway veteran is teaming up with American Idol alumni Constantine Maroulis and Diana DeGarmo for a special night of music on Thursday supporting the nonprofit organization New Alternatives at the New York City club Hardware.

Michael Longoria

The benefit, co-hosted by Ashley Austin Morris, will raise money for New Alternatives — an organization that helps homeless LGBT youth become self-sufficient and transition out of the shelter system and into stable adult lives. The center — which provides services including case management, education, life-skills training, community-building recreational opportunities for self-expression and support services for HIV-positive youth — will be losing its donated space after August, and Longoria hopes the benefit will raise enough money as well as awareness to keep the program alive.

“It’s a very dangerous situation for young people, where the only reason they’re homeless is because their family has abandoned them,” he tells Billboard. “That’s the only reason they’re in there, and that’s what we need to get involved in — if we don’t look out for them, who will?”

Programs like New Alternatives are necessary, he said, to help homeless youth map out their futures while staying out of “harm’s way.” “This organization is specifically for these people that go to these other shelters and are harassed or physically hurt because people don’t accept young gay people,” he said.

The event — which kicks off at 9 p.m. — will also feature raffles for a Broadway records album package, a bottle of Pinot by Tituss wine autographed by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Tituss Burgess, as well as tickets to The Color PurpleFiddler on the RoofKinky Boots, Finding NeverlandHimself, Nora, Trip of Love and Feinstein’s/54 Below.

The evening will serve as a celebration of Pride Week and a reminder to the community to remain vigilant in the face of hate and bigotry in light of the tragic massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 and injuring 53.

“What happened in Orlando is just a reminder that no matter how much love we have, other sources of evil are always going to resist, so let’s find a way to get serious in a positive way that shows our support for each other and our love for each other in public,” he said. “The people that need to be the most out and proud are the youth — the young people that are seeing all this violence are now scared to be themselves. … I feel like now more than ever is the time we need to show affection and we need to show who we are, because those people that were in that nightclub were people that were living their lives and showing their love for one another.”

Longoria — who said he has visited Pulse while on tour with various productions — was heartbroken to learn of a mother who was killed in the club while out dancing with her son. “To know that that mother was there in support of her son and loved her son and was accepting of her son and she lost her life in that tragic moment was just the worst news that I got, and ultimately, it’s just an attack on all Americans, humanity and our American way of life,” he said. “In a gay club, we are in a place where we can be ourselves and be free and not worry about any of that judgment and live our lives, and to have an attack on that freedom is an attack on every freedom in America, and that’s why all Americans need to be paying attention and getting involved in hopes of preventing this kind of thing from happening again in the future.”

Longoria — an original member of the cast of Jersey Boys in the role of Frankie Valli after a run in Hairspray — is currently supporting his new CD, Broadway Brick by Brick: a Latin-infused collection of Broadway classics including “Maria” (West Side Story), “The Sound of Music” (The Sound of Music) and “Music and the Mirror” (A Chorus Line). The record weaves in Longoria’s own personal story of his youth in Los Angeles leading to his success on The Great White Way.

“It became an autobiography of my life, my journey as a very young opera singer in a Mexican-American culture, a very heterosexual, Catholic culture, and finding myself in musical theater, in Broadway songs, and realizing that I was gay all the while,” he said. “Each song I chose tells a milestone of my journey, starting with my father, getting accepted to NYU and not having a means to get there, and getting the scholarship and getting on a plane in Los Angeles and leaving my family behind.”

A $10 donation is suggested to attend. Hardware is located at 697 10th Ave. in New York.

Miranda’s “Hamilton” to Play at LA’s Pantages Theater in 2017

Lin-Manuel Miranda is taking his hit Broadway musical out west…

Hamilton, the 36-year-old Puerto Rican composer, lyricist, librettist, rapper, and actor’s rap-infused musical about the American Revolution and the nation’s first Treasury secretary, will have a run beginning in the late summer of 2017 at the Hollywood Pantages.

Hamilton

The theater is operated by the Nederlander Organization, which also owns the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, where the show has become this season’s most coveted ticket.

In anticipation of a hit, the four-month-plus Hollywood run is scheduled from August 11 through the end of the year, concluding a season that will feature two other Nederlander-based hits: An American In Paris (March 22 – April 9, 2017), currently at the Palace Theatre and Finding Neverland (February 21 – March 12, 2017), currently at the Lunt-Fontanne.

Completing the 13-month season that begins next November are the Tony-winning revivals of Hedwig And The Angry Inch (November 1-27, 2016) and The King And I (December 13 – January 21, 2017) plus the musical adaptation of The Bodyguard (May 2 – 21, 2017), which had its premiere in London and hasn’t been seen on Broadway, and a return engagement of The Book Of Mormon (May 30 – July 9, 2017).

Information is available at hollywoodpantages.com.

Villafane & Her “On Your Feet!” Cast Members Dazzle at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Ana Villafane knows how to get you on your feet!

The Cuban/Salvadoran-American actress and singer wowed audiences, both on the streets and at home, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Ana Villafane at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Villafane, the star of Broadway’s On Your Feet! — the biotuner about the courtship and rise to superstardom of the Miami Sound Machine’s Gloria and Emilio Estefan — led off NBC’s coverage of the iconic holiday parade.

Villafane, starring as Gloria, and the cast sang a medley of songs that included “Conga” and “Turn The Beat Around.”

“We are going to be opening the Thanksgiving Day Parade which is like bucket list item No. 1,” Villafañe told Fox News Latino before the parade. “I’m still that girl who puts on Christmas pajamas that watches the whole parade start-to-finish and I’m 26.

The lively opening number was followed by performances by the cast of fellow Broadway musicals Finding Neverland, Fiddler on the Roof and The King and I.