October 2020 News

by BWW News Desk

The Path Fund Inc. & MAC have announced that JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS join the previously announced line up of performers for ROCKERS ON BROADWAY: BAND TOGETHER. The event will be streamed for one night only on Monday November 9th, 2020 at 7:30pm on Broadway On Demand. Tickets are now on sale.

ROCKERS ON BROADWAY¨ is the original Broadway rock concert series that is a fun, unique charity event that features Rock Musicians and Broadway's best rockin' out for a great cause. This special virtual presentation ROCKERS ON BROADWAY: BAND TOGETHER is a celebration of the arts Community, paying tribute to the perseverance and strength of Performing Artists, and will honor EMMY, GRAMMY and TONY Award-winner - Billy Porter (Pose, Kinky Boots).

"I am so thrilled to be this year's Lifetime Achievement honoree at the Rockers on Broadway benefit concert. What a wonderful opportunity to give back to the arts community. Everyone should tune in to the streamed show on Nov 9th, support the live arts and also watch a great show," says Porter.

Already slated to perform are TONY Award Winners: Michael Cerveris and LaChanze, TONY Award Nominees: Lilli Cooper, Constantine Maroulis, Adam Pascal, and J. Robert Spencer. Broadway and Music stars Julie Halston, Morgan James, Alexa Ray Joel, Donnie Kehr, Ginger Minj. Rick Negron, Ryan Peete, Jen Perry, Ryann Redmond, and rising star Isabelle Gottfried. Hosted by Ben Cameron, with a special appearance by Cyndi Lauper.

Proceeds to benefit Broadway Bound Kids, The Felix Organization and Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS. Proceeds will also benefit PATH Fund's Community Relief Grant Program which launched on Aug 1, 2020 to help artists with much needed financial assistance during the continued shutdown of live entertainment. To date, the grant program has issued 33 grants to artists with hundreds more on the wait-list.

Tickets range from $20 - $150 and are on sale now at rockersonbroadway.com and a broadwayondemand.com.

by Simon Gage

DEBBIE HARRY


I've known her since the RUNAWAYS days and it's so nice to have friends like that, who understand what you've been through. And important! I was always a big fan.

CHRISSIE HYNDE

by Simon Gage

'MY GUITAR teacher told me, "girls don't play rock'n'roll",' says JOAN JETT, who not only plays rock'n'roll, but had a song called I Love Rock'n'Roll that stayed at Number One in the United States for seven weeks (take that mister guitar teacher). JOAN JETT IS rock'n'roll.

Everything about her - the spiked hair, the leather jackets, the catsuits, the snarl, the heavy eye make-up, the attitude, the songs, the everything - is rock'n'roll. So much so, that she's known as the Godmother Of Rock'n'Roll. Mind you, she's also known as the Godmother Of Punk so, you know, busy woman.

Sitting, looking out to sea, in her Long Beach home, wearing black sweats and a T-shirt, she has a chuckle to herself when you mention that she's the perfect woman to be part of the Good Night Songs For Rebel Girls album (a music offshoot of the Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls series of books), where singers from Macy Gray to KT Tunstall have chosen songs to perform by their rebellious inspirations.

Joan has chosen one of her own tracks. There's also an online event this Sunday, where you can rock out with Joan and join a host of other inspirational rebel women, from artist Freida Pinto to skateboarder and surfer Sky Brown.

'I can definitely relate with the rebel thing, sure,' says Joan in a voice so deep it's almost a honk. 'I always want to help girls achieve their dreams, you know. As a younger kid, it didn't feel like I was rebelling but at teendom, you realised the expectation for girls: how you had to walk, what you could beÉ all that stuff comes alive when you start High School. But I liked different things, I gravitated towards the misfits, I guess I could relate.'

Telling Joan she couldn't do something was all she needed to roll up her sleeves and do it. 'That would inspire me,' says the woman who, as a teenager put together pioneering all-girl rock band The RUNAWAYS, who helped paved the way for The Ramones, without whom there would have been no punk movement.

'What that guitar teacher was telling me back when I was 13 was not that you can't master the instrument, he was saying that rock'n'roll is steeped in sexuality and a woman singing about sex makes people uncomfortable. So it was at that point I became rebellious,' she says. 'Don't tell me I can't do something because I'm a girl.'

She was lucky in that her parents had always told her she could be anything she wanted to be, whether it was an astronaut or an archaeologist, and when the family ended up in California, she realised she was in the right place.

But it didn't come easy. When The RUNAWAYS went out on the road, they would have things thrown at them and be told in no uncertain terms that girls didn't play rock'n'roll.