The Tony Award-winning Broadway star Norbert Leo Butz will headline a benefit concert for The Angel Band Project at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, at WUSTL’s 560 Music Center.
A St. Louis native, Butz made his Broadway debut as Roger Davis in Rent in 1996 and twice won the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005) and Catch Me if You Can (2011).
Joining Butz will be a band of professional musicians from New York, Seattle and St. Louis. All proceeds will go toward funding a pilot music therapy program for sexual violence survivors.
The Angel Band Project began in 2009, following the murder of Butz’s sister, Teresa, by an intruder who broke into the Seattle home she shared with her partner, Jennifer Hopper. Soon thereafter, musician friends and family of both women recorded a benefit album, with proceeds dedicated to survivors of sexual violence.
“Music has the power to heal,” said Angel Band co-founder Rachel Ebeling. “There’s a reason we put on our favorite album for comfort or a pick-me-up when we’re feeling low. Given the fact that someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes in the U.S., we are using the therapeutic power of music as a healing tool for survivors of sexual assault in their journey toward healing.”
Butz has just wrapped up the pre-Broadway run of Big Fish in Chicago. Big Fish will debut on Broadway in October.
Other projects include the film Dan in Real Life with Steve Carrell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook; and the indie film Higher Ground with Vera Farmiga. He recently played himself in an episode of the NBC musical drama Smash.
Tickets are $25-$100 and are available through MetroTix. The performance is sponsored by the OUTLaw, a student-run LGBT awareness, advocacy, support and social group in WUSTL’s School of Law; and by Edward Jones, Webster University and Crawford-Butz Insurance Agencies, among others.
The 560 Music Center is located in University City, at 560 Trinity Ave. For more information, visit www.angelbandproject.org.