Who: Bobby Cannavale, Marisa Tomei
What: Livestreamed reading produced by Tectonic Theater Project
Where: Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and YouTube
When: Tuesday, January 26, free (donations accepted), 8:00 (available through January 30)
Why: Originally commissioned for public television, Jon Robin Baitz’s Three Hotels consists of a trio of confessional monologues by executive Ken Hoyle and his wife, Barbara, dealing with personal tragedy and professional complications. First presented by Circle Rep in 1993 with Ron Rifkin and Christine Lahti, it played the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 1995 with Richard Dreyfuss and Lahti and the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2011 with Steven Weber and Maura Tierney. Tectonic Theater Project is now teaming up with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS for a benefit reading of the work with Bobby Cannavale and Marisa Tomei, helmed by Tectonic cofounder and artistic director Moisés Kaufman. “I think I first conceived of Three Hotels as an act of vengeance on my parents’ behalf — this being the kind of hubris only children are capable of, and only when they believe, erroneously or not, that they have witnessed the humiliation of a mother and father,” Baitz writes in an introductory note to the published version. “Memory is everything to me.” The play will stream live on January 26 at 8:00, with an introduction by two-time Pulitzer finalist Baitz (The Substance of Fire, Other Desert Cities) and two-time Tony nominee Kaufman (The Laramie Project, Torch Song), and will be available through January 30. Every dollar donated will help fight HIV/AIDS, Covid-19, and other critical illnesses across the country; Broadway Cares will also be presenting Anjou: The Musical Horror Tale on January 29 and ABC Daytime: Back on Broadway on February 11 with Bobbie Eakes, Melissa Claire Egan, Vincent Irizarry, Eva La Rue, Susan Lucci, Cameron Mathison, Eden Riegel, Chrishell Stause, and Walt Willey from All My Children, Kristen Alderson, BethAnn Fuenmayor, Kathy Brier, Kassie DePaiva, David Gregory, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Catherine Hickland, Mark Lawson, Hillary B. Smith, Jason Tam, and Brittany Underwood from One Life to Live, and Bradford Anderson, Brandon Barash, and Anthony Geary from General Hospital.