Streisand Joins Houston, LuPone on Benefit Bill : Fund-raiser: Commitment to Life--the entertainment industry’s biggest event to combat AIDS--will be at Universal Amphitheatre Jan. 27.

Hot off her landmark Las Vegas concerts, Barbra Streisand will join Whitney Houston, Patti LuPone and Doris Day, among others, at the seventh Commitment to Life event--the entertainment industry’s biggest fund-raising event to combat AIDS.

The Jan. 27 program to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheatre will honor First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Walt Disney Studios Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg for their efforts in health care and in the fight against the disease.

The lineup of stars scheduled to appear onstage includes Richard Gere, Lauren Bacall, Liza Minnelli, Sarah Brightman and Debbie Reynolds, as well as the New York-based Rockettes, the Bill T. Jones Dance Co. and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Streisand’s publicist, Richard Guttman, said that the star does not plan to sing and will be on hand to introduce Mrs. Clinton. Show producer Steve Tisch said that he and co-producer Dana Miller have asked Streisand to consider singing one song from her Las Vegas show. “It would be sensational if she does,” Tisch said.

At 1992’s event, which raised $3.9 million, Streisand made one of her rare singing appearances when she was the recipient of a Commitment to Life award.

The producers said the theme “Heaven Can Wait” will run through the show and serve as a tribute to celebrities lost to the disease. Each performer has a direct relationship to a lost celebrity.

The appearance by Day, who will sing, is a rare one, and is prompted by her friendship with the late actor Rock Hudson. Houston, who will sing two songs, knew choreographer Michael Bennett.

Others to be remembered include Peter Allen, Howard Ashman, Arthur Ashe, Liberace, Robert Mapplethorpe, Freddie Mercury, Paul Jabara and Halston.

Minnelli, who was married at one time to Allen, will sing “And the Day After That,” from the musical “The Kiss of the Spider Woman,” with a chorus of 200. The song has become an unofficial AIDS anthem.

Miller said that LuPone will sing “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” from the musical “Sunset Boulevard,” as the faces of lost celebrities pass on a screen behind her. LuPone, who stars in the London company of the musical, will fly in for one night. She has performed in APLA shows before and, Miller, in answer to a question, said that her appearance had nothing to do with any attempt to upstage Glenn Close, the star of the Los Angeles edition of “Sunset Boulevard,” and with whom LuPone appears to be in competition for the lead in the show’s eventual New York company.

“The fact is, Glenn Close will be singing that night at the Shubert Theatre,” Miller added.

The producers said that some free tickets will be made available to APLA’s clients and that the names of about 10,000 persons who have died from AIDS will be rolled across a screen during the course of the show. “They are all celebrities,” Miller said.

The co-chairs of the evening are QVC Chairman Barry Diller, Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner, show business mogul David Geffen and Creative Artists Agency partner Ron Meyer.