Stars to Come Out for AIDS Benefit : Glittery Show at Universal Expected to Raise More Than $2 Million

Elton John will sing “I Feel Pretty.” Wynonna Judd and Kenny Loggins will do a country rendition of “Tonight.” Billy Joel and Eddie Van Halen will perform “The Jet Song.” And Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle and Sheila E will unite on “America.” The finale will bring Barbra Streisand onstage, where she is expected to sing a duet with Johnny Mathis.

This unlikely combination of high-profile talent is part of the lineup for Wednesday’s all-star Hollywood benefit for AIDS Project Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheatre saluting Streisand and show-business mogul David Geffen for their efforts on behalf of AIDS causes. Geffen donated $1 million to APLA this year.

The show’s concept is lyricist Bernie Taupin’s wish list come to life.

It didn’t take much for APLA leaders to get the longtime Elton John collaborator to spearhead the sixth APLA Commitment to Life benefit. It’s been a cause close to Taupin’s heart for some time. His and John’s recent “The Last Song” has drawn much attention for its poignant relating of a father’s love for a dying son who never expected to know of his father’s affection. (Proceeds from the single benefit AIDS causes.)

When it came to putting APLA’s Committment to Life show together, Taupin ran into few difficulties. “Basically, I just got on the phone and called favors on people. And everybody was extraordinary about it. I mean, I didn’t have to fight.”

The first half of the program will include acoustic sets, the second half will be songs from Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s “West Side Story.”

“When it came to ‘The Jet Song,’ I thought, ‘Now who could do it?’ ” Taupin said between phone calls at his temporary offices on Wilshire Boulevard. “I thought of New York and streets. So I called Billy Joel up at home. And he said, ‘I’d love to do it. I play that song in my rehearsals.’ ”

He encountered that kind of enthusiasm as he worked his way through his wish list.

“You see, the thing is everybody loves ‘West Side Story’ and contemporary performers love to have the chance to sing other people’s songs, especially if they’re good ones. That was one of the drawing points of getting the talent.”

There was some jockeying for who would sing what song, he acknowledged, but he wouldn’t give details. “We’re going to have an ego deposit box at the backstage door. . . . We’re there to save lives. We’re not there to evaluate our self-import.”

Others scheduled to appear include Patti Austin, Clint Black, Rickie Lee Jones, Lyle Lovett, Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli, Aaron Neville, a new group called E.Y.C. and Russ Tamblyn, who was in the cast of the 1961 film version of “West Side Story.”

Each Commitment to Life benefit has taken on a different form, depending on the participants. The event has grown from a dinner chaired by Elizabeth Taylor in the months just prior to Rock Hudson’s death from AIDS, to a tribute show for Madonna that featured the pop star in performance, to last year’s campy and glittering revue saluting Bette Midler.

Last year, in an ironic coincidence of timing, the event was held only days after actor Brad Davis died of AIDS-related causes. The story of his hiding his illness for fear of not being employed in Hollywood riveted the entertainment community. In a dramatic turn at the Commitment to Life event, Barry Diller, then chairman of Fox Inc., and Sid Sheinberg, MCA Inc. president, announced formation of Hollywood Supports--an industry-backed project to fight AIDS discrimination and homophobia.

This year, one of the big lures in selling tickets was news that Streisand would be honored and possibly sing, something that the renowned vocalist has done publicly only twice in recent years--on behalf of an environmental cause and at a fund-raiser two months ago for Bill Clinton.

By late last week, few tickets remained available. In exchange for making substantial contributions to APLA, those few seats went for “ridiculously high prices,” said Diller, benefit co-chairman with Ron Meyer, president of Creative Artists Agency.

APLA reports that about 6,500 tickets at prices ranging from $50 to $1,000 each were sold well in advance of the show. With all talent and most everything else donated, the sellout means that more than $2 million will go to APLA, surpassing last year’s $1.3 million.

“Benefits have become very run-of-the-mill,” a somewhat weary but enthusiastic Taupin said. “We live in an age of continual benefits.” The idea of asking people to donate time and money to still another benefit, albeit one that he considers vital, led him to the concept he’s calling “an anti-benefit benefit. I would get no excitement out of the usual variety-show format when the singers come on, then the comedian, then the dog act.”