Broadway’s Miscast Gala Will Bring Those Delightful Performances Straight to YouTube This Year
by Jackson McHenryIf you’re a certain kind of musical theater fan, MCC Theater’s Miscast Gala is an event you might look forward to all year. It’s the source of many a YouTube wormhole, since it gives an excuse for the stars of New York theater, from Katrina Lenk to Tina Fey and Tituss Burgess to Cynthia Erivo, to take on the songs they’d traditionally never cast to sing in real life. Because they are ridiculously talented people, they do an unsurprisingly great job. With theater as an industry shut down, the gala itself might’ve fallen by the wayside – originally MCC rescheduled the event from its original date on April 6 to June, and then later to October – but now it has found its way online. MCC announced today that Miscast will be presented on YouTube on Saturday, June 20, 2020, starting at 8pm E.T.
The new, virtual event, dubbed Miscast20, will still feature Miscast performances, filmed remotely, with the list of stars to be announced at a later date. The Miscast gala will be available to be live streamed for free, but for those who donate, MCC will give 10 percent of the money raised during the broadcast to the Mental Health Coalition, while the rest will go to supporting the Off Broadway theater’s operations, Youth Company, partnerships with New York City schools, and literary development work. The theater plans to auction off items before and during the broadcast to raise money, including MCC co-Artistic Director Robert LuPone’s original from the 1975 production of A Chorus Line. The theater also has said that it plans to return to the traditional, in-person version of Miscast next year.