A six-hour variety show to raise funds for the Las Vegas entertainment community affected by the coronavirus shutdown will be live-streamed on MondaysDark.com on April 27.
Mondays Dark, a monthly production founded in 2013 to help local charities, will team with the Actors Fund for the event. It will be broadcast free of charge from 5 to 11 p.m. Pacific time with donations accepted at the Mondays Dark website.
The effort will help Las Vegas actors, dancers, musicians and crewmembers whose shows have been canceled because of the pandemic. All of the funds raised before and during the telethon will be donated to the entertainment community through the Actors Fund.
Among the locals and nationally known headliners set to appear are Brad Garrett, Joey Fatone, Dot-Marie Jones, Jon Taffer, Clint Holmes, John DiDomenico and cast members from Cirque du Soleil productions. Performers will be live from their homes or in person at the Space, a Las Vegas arts complex that has hosted Mondays Dark since 2017.
"I am thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with an amazing organization that does so much for the entertainment community," said entertainer Mark Shunock, creator of Mondays Dark. "The Actors Fund is not a household name in Las Vegas like it is in Los Angeles and New York, and I hope Mondays Dark can help change that. Whether you work backstage, in wardrobe, dance, sing, act, the Actors fund can help you."
Mondays Dark, a reference to the day of the week that many Las Vegas productions are off, hosts variety shows once or twice a month in a 300-seat theater to support local charities. It has raised more than $1 million for charities such as Opportunity Village (for those with intellectual or related disabilities), Keep Memory Alive (research, diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders), Aid for AIDS of Nevada and Habitat for Humanity.