Broadway Stars Perform At Breast Cancer Benefit

WESTPORT — Broadway stars Teresa Eldh, a Westport native, and Kevin Gray, a Westport resident, will perform at the ninth annual Broadway on Beachside event, a breast cancer benefit held at a private estate in Westport on Sunday, July 25.

Ms Eldh, a graduate of Staples High School, has been the music director of Broadway on Beachside since its inception in 1995 when her friend Cissy Hornung, the founder of Broadway on Beachside, asked her to “share a few tunes.” Most recently a member of the Broadway company of Phantom of the Opera, Ms Eldh lost her grandmother to cancer during her senior year of college.

“What I love about performing at Broadway on Beachside is that I am singing with my performer friends to an audience of family and friends in a beautiful setting, for a terrific cause. It’s been my absolute pleasure to put together the musical review for Broadway on Beachside each year. It gets to be more fun as we go along!” said Ms Eldh.

Kevin Gray, most recently seen on Broadway as Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar, lives in Westport with his wife Dodie Pettit, also a Broadway performer. A Broadway on Beachside alumni, Mr Gray has continued to return to the event because of the incredible cancer survivors that he has had the opportunity to meet.

“The most amazing part of Broadway on Beachside is the testimonials of survivors, whose courage is beyond inspiring,” he said. “I remember well a speech that began ‘I have cancer, and I feel sorry for you that you don’t because I am so alive now that I don’t waste a moment of my life.’ Okay, I thought, I’m listening now.”

His family is also no stranger to cancer as he lost his father three years ago to multiple myeloma.

Co-chairs of Broadway on Beachside include Cissy and Donald Hornung of Westport and Bob and Maggie Kaye Hornung of Southport. Cissy Hornung and American Cancer Society staff member Gayle Alswanger created Broadway on Beachside nine years ago. Cissy approached the American Cancer Society hoping to celebrate her survival of breast cancer by creating an event that would offer hope and inspiration to others facing the disease, as well as raise funds for breast cancer research. Since its inception, Broadway on Beachside has raised over $2 million and has funded six breast cancer researchers.

The minimum gift to attend is $200 per person. All money raised this year will fund the American Cancer Society-approved breast cancer researcher Dr Dennis Slamon of UCLA. Dr Slamon is internationally known for being the primary force behind the development of Herceptin, the first humanized antibody approved for the treatment of HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer. Dr Slamon will attend this fundraiser and speak about his new research.

The American Cancer Society is the largest source of private not-for-profit cancer research funds in the United States, investing more than $100 million every year in cutting-edge research. For more information about Broadway on Beachside, call Gayle Alswanger at 203-563-1513.