HIV AIDS
Alan Menken is an EGOT winner, so he has enough awards to fill his shelves, and then some. But an award he’s receiving on Feb. 26 figures to be especially meaningful to him – the Howard Ashman Award, named after his longtime collaborator who died of AIDS in 1991.
The award will be presented at GMHC’s ninth annual Cabaret & Howard Ashman Award fundraising event, hosted by Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in New York City. (GMHC was founded in 1982 as Gay Men’s Health Crisis, though the organization used the acronym in a press release about his event.)
Menken and Ashman received their first Oscar nominations for best original song in 1987 for co-writing “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” for Little Shop of Horrors. Less than a year later, in January 1988, Ashman was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
He kept working until his death in March 1991. Menken and Ashman won the Oscar for best original song in March 1990 for “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid another in March 1992 for the exquisite title song from Beauty and the Beast. Ashman received seven Oscar nominations in all – four of them posthumously. That’s more posthumous nominations than anyone else in Oscar history.
Since Ashman’s death, Menken has two additional Oscars for best original song – for “A Whole New World” from Aladdin (which he co-wrote with Tim Rice) and “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (which he co-wrote with Stephen Schwartz).
Schwartz will be at the Feb. 26 event to celebrate Menken, along with Claybourne Elder, Adam Jacobs and Arielle Jacobs. Kyle Branzel will be the music director.
Proceeds from the cabaret will directly support GMHC’s lifesaving programs for thousands of people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.
Prior Ashman awardees are Lea DeLaria, André De Shields, the late Terrence McNally, Javier Muñoz, Kathy Najimy, Andrew Rannells, Michael Urie, and Tom Viola.
Ashman didn’t live to see the completion of Beauty and the Beast, which was released in November 1991. The film was dedicated to Ashman’s memory, and featured this message after the end credits: “To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice, and a beast his soul. We will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman 1950-1991.”
For information on tickets, go here.
Jewel is set to perform at the Angel Awards Gala on Saturday, Sept. 23. The event will be held in the parking lot at Project Angel Food’s Hollywood kitchen, which will be transformed into a “ballroom under the stars.” Project Angel Food prepares and delivers more than 1.5 million meals each year to more than 4,000 individuals living with a wide range of critical illnesses in Los Angeles County.
Jewel, who has reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 with six albums, is a singer-songwriter, actress, author and long-time mental health advocate. For 21 years, her Inspiring Children Foundation and Jewel Inc. have been bringing mental health programs to at-risk youth and to corporations. Jewel also created SELLA, a language arts curriculum for schools that incorporates social and emotional learning and mental health practices. She recently co-founded the virtual mental health platform Inner.world.
Jewel may be best known for her double-sided smash “Foolish Games”/“You Were Meant for Me,” which rode the Billboard Hot 100 for 65 weeks in 1996-97, peaking at No. 2. Her other hits include “Who Will Save Your Soul” and “Hands.” Jewel has received four Grammy nominations.
Sheryl Lee Ralph will receive the inaugural Sheryl Lee Ralph Legacy Award. Ralph won a Primetime Emmy last year for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for Abbott Elementary. She is nominated in that category again this year. She received a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical in 1982 for Dreamgirls.
Ralph’s commitment to Project Angel Food spans three decades. In a statement, Project Angel Food CEO Richard Ayoub explained why the organization created the Legacy award that will bear Ralph’s name in perpetuity. “When no one and I mean NO ONE would stand up for people living with AIDS, Sheryl Lee Ralph risked her career and her livelihood to do what was right. She had seen too much suffering and wanted to help. That commitment to those in need has not wavered in 34 years! This new Sheryl Lee Ralph Legacy Award is long overdue.”
AIDS activist, artist and author Mary Fisher will receive the 2023 Angel Award, a distinction previously bestowed on Judith Light, Elizabeth Taylor, George Michael, Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg, among others. Fisher may be best known for a pair of bridge-building speeches she delivered at the Republican National Conventions in Houston in 1992 and San Diego in 1996. Fisher serves on Project Angel Food’s board of directors.
The Angel Awards are presented by naming sponsor Wells Fargo, with Glamazon L.A., Amazon’s LGBTQ+ Affinity Group, joining as a principal sponsor.
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