Beth Malone, who starred in the DCPA Theatre Company’s reimagining of The Unsinkable Molly Brown and then was nominated for her work in Broadway’s Fun Home, has joined the homegrown lineup for United in Love, a special concert event presented by Ebner-Page Productions and benefiting the Denver Actors Fund on Sunday, April 30, at the Lone Tree Arts Center. TICKETS HERE

“It is important for me to be there with my friends because the Denver Actors Fund is an outreach program that helps people I love,” Malone said. “I am connected to almost everybody in the Denver theatre community in a Kevin Bacon sort of way. And if any of those people ever needs anything, I know that the Denver Actors Fund is there for them. So when you get the opportunity to be a part of something so incredible, you have to just be grateful that you are the one who was chosen to be part of it.” 

Malone joins previously announced co-headliners Annaleigh Ashford, Andy Kelso and Mara Davi – all Colorado-born and raised performers who have gone on to Broadway success. Ashford won the Tony Award for her work opposite James Earl Jones in You Can’t Take it with You and is currently receiving rave reviews with Jake Gyllenhaal in a limited Broadway engagement of Sunday in the Park with George. She previously co-starred with Kelso in Kinky Boots. Davi (Dames at Sea, Smash, A Chorus Line) grew up in Highlands Ranch.

These four powerhouse Broadway performers are coming home to unite with local performers and spread a message of love and hope while raising funds for the Denver Actors Fund, which in three years has made $82,000 available to local theatre artists facing situational medical need. 

Ashford is a graduate of Wheat Ridge High School and also appeared on Broadway in Sylvia, Hair, Wicked and Legally Blonde. Next she will star as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream this summer in New York’s Central Park. Kelso, a graduate of Eaglecrest High School in Aurora, starred in Kinky Boots after a three-year run in Mamma Mia.

Click here to choose your April 30 concert seats now

Malone, Kelso and Ashford all regularly appeared the Country Dinner Playhouse (among many others) on their roads to New York. But Malone has never performed in a show with Ashford. They met when Ashford and her husband approached her outside of a theatre in New York.

“She walked up to me and said, ‘Are you Beth Malone from Denver?'” said Malone, who was star-struck herself. “I was like, ‘Yes, girl from Masters of Sex who I am obsessed with. I am Beth Malone from Denver. Why?’ I had no idea of our Country Dinner Playhouse connection because she was much younger than me. When I was coming up, I was obsessed with Kristie Welborn. Those years sitting next to Kristie and Maureen McHale and Alann Worley in the dressing room were the best years of my life.” 

Ashford and Malone soon got to know each other during the 2015 Tony Awards season, when they were both nominated for awards and frequently appeared together.   

Photo above and right: Beth Malone last night at her DCPA concert with Steven J. Burge (‘An Act of God’) who is co-hosting the April 30 United in Love’ concert with Eden Lane.)

Malone’s appearance at the United in Love concert is all the more remarkable because she is also committed to appearing in New York at an all-star tribute to Broadway’s original Molly Brown, Tammy Grimes, on the day before the Denver concert. Grimes died in October.

Malone presented two sold-out concerts yesterday at the Denver Center’s Garner-Galleria Theatre. Next she will return to the role she re-created for the DCPA Theatre Company when The Unsinkable Molly Brown plays The Muny from July 21-27 in St. Louis. The Muny is America’s largest outdoor musical theatre. After that, Malone said, the goal is Broadway.

Read our full, new interview with Beth Malone here

The United in Love concert also will feature longtime performer (and Denver First Lady) Mary Louise Lee, Broadway’s Jodie Langel (Les Misérables) and Denise Gentilini, composer of the Armenia genocide musical I Am Alive.

Incidentally, Malone’s first professional job was understudy to Lee when both performed in Beehive as teenagers at what is now the Garner-Galleria Theatre.

Additional appearances are scheduled from Denver favorites Jimmy Bruenger, Eugene Ebner, Becca Fletcher, Clarissa Fugazzotto, Robert Johnson, Daniel Langhoff, Susannah McLeod, Chloe McLeod, Sarah Rex, Jeremy Rill, Kristen Samu, Willow Samu, Thaddeus Valdez, and the casts of both The Jerseys (Brian Smith, Paul Dwyer, Klint Rudolph and Randy St. Pierre) and the upcoming 13 the Musical (featuring an all-student cast including Joshua Cellar, Conrad Eck, Macy Friday, Evan Gibley, Lorenzo Giovanetti, Kaden Hinkle, Hannah Katz, Darrow Klein, Rylee Vogel and Hannah Meg Weinraub).

The lineup is subject to change.

The emcees of the event will be performer and local TV arts journalist Eden Lane, also the director of the Aurora Fox’s upcoming regional premiere of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and actor Steven J. Burge, who just starred in the Denver Center’s An Act of God at the Garner-Galleria Theatre.

The Denver Actors Fund was founded in 2013 by former Denver Post Theatre Critic John Moore and actor/attorney Christopher Boeckx. The Denver Actors Fund offers both financial assistance with medical bills, insurance, co-payments, supplies and more, as well as volunteer assistance ranging from meals to transportation to snow-shoveling. Recently the Denver Actors Fund has helped a young father undergoing chemotherapy, a director who had triple-bypass surgery, and the parents of a child who died with medical and burial expenses. An team of more than 60 volunteers have provided more than 250 hours of service.

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter

The Denver Actors Fund is a 501c3 nonprofit, and all donations are tax-deductible. For more information, or to apply for aid, go to denveractorsfund.org.

The Presenting Sponsor of United in Love is Delta Dental of Colorado. The Gold Sponsor is Kaiser Permanente.  Silver Sponsors are Billings Investments and the Alliance Insurance Group.