Stepping Out Against AIDS : An Annual Musical Revue by Southland Artists Will Benefit APLA’s Necessities of Life Program

AIDS was “a disease attacking gay men” when David Galligan directed the first Southland Artists Goodwill Event a decade ago. “Nobody knew much about it. It didn’t sound terrifying, it wasn’t anything that clutched your heart. We had no idea what this devastating disease would become.”

This month, Galligan will be directing his 10th STAGE benefit, with proceeds going to AIDS Project Los Angeles’ Necessities of Life Program. The musical revue pays tribute each year to American composers and lyricists such as Leonard Bernstein, the Gershwins, Stephen Sondheim, and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, and draws on local and nationally known theater talent. The benefit has raised $500,000 over the years. A gross of $250,000 is anticipated this year.

A retrospective of favorites from past shows is this year’s theme. In the cast are Lucie Arnaz, Dorian Harewood, Holly Near, B.D. Wong, Linda Purl and Dale Kristien.

Galligan says there’s a different feeling at rehearsals now than there was a decade ago.

“Oh, we dish, the new babies come parading through, and then we cry over somebody we lost last year. It’s a remarkable place to be. And as hard as we work, it’s a lot easier for me to do this than for the (volunteer) ‘buddies’ who go and change people’s bedclothes. Those people out there are amazing.”

Galligan, whose other theater credits include co-creating the shows “Blame It on the Movies” Parts One and Two, says he was asked to direct the first STAGE benefit by actor Michael Kearns and playwright James Carroll Pickett.

He credits the generosity of the theater community with one reason for the show’s longevity.

“We talked to people at the Ahmanson and told them we needed a prop and they donated one. The Mark Taper donated a light board, and away we went.”

Says Ron Abel, the show’s musical director who has independently worked with Arnaz, Engelbert Humperdinck and Peter Allen: “The people who are based in theater have much more of a familial bond than those in movies or TV. It’s hard to describe. The people you’re doing the show with are your family for that amount of time.”

After nine years as the show’s musical director, Abel says, “Every year brings new things that you have to deal with. You get to know the personalities you’re arranging for, what suits them best. And then there are always new people, and you have to figure out what their strong points are.”

Abel adds: “In the theater community, we’ve lost so many people. That makes it so much more personal. To have lost those people, you feel it a lot more.”

Naomi Caryl is in her seventh year as a co-chair of the event. (Her co-chairs this year are Robert Fryer, Betty Garrett and Joyce Van Patten.)

“Part of what I’ve learned from doing this,” Caryl says, “is the importance of these kinds of events, the importance of committing yourself to it. It may be helping someone you know really well.”

Kristien is a 10-year veteran of the benefit. The actress/singer, who performed as Christine in Andrew LLoyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera” at the Ahmanson for more than four years, calls the benefit “the best place in the world to perform. The audience is so appreciative of the talent, and there is so much talent. Everybody who gets up can stop the show.”

Ten years ago, “I had just moved here from New York,” she says, “and this was the first thing I did here. We all had to look up what AIDS was. Now, 10 years later, some of the people who used to perform with us are no longer here. . . . We all love to sing, and we need to make money for this particular cause. We certainly didn’t think we’d be doing it so long.”

Kristien echoes a wish made by Abel: “I’d like to see the time we don’t have to do this anymore.”