STARS ALIGN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ON INAUGURATION DAY

"Edelweiss is a flower that blooms in the worst of conditions," Tony-winning Broadway star Billy Porter says, referencing the Richard Rodgers classic best known from The Sound of Music. "It's a song of hope, of peace, a healing prayer for a country in time of crisis. We need it now more than ever."

Porter, who sashayed to Broadway fame with Kinky Boots, will perform his soulful new rendition (from his forthcoming Rodgers songbook album) as part of the star-studded inauguration day Concert for America: Stand Up, Sing Out! on 1/20 in NYC. The track will be serviced this week by Sony Masterworks.

The event at landmark venue The Town Hall—due to be streamed live on Facebook—will raise funds for human-rights organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, National Immigration Law Center and The Sierra Club Foundation, in what’s intended as the first of a monthly series of live benefits. Also slated to appear are, among many others, Broadway stars Chita Rivera, Betty Buckley, Jessie Mueller and Brian Stokes Mitchell, as well as such familiar faces as Sharon Gless, Andrea Martin, Rosie O’Donnell, Bebe Neuwirth and Caroline Rhea.

Broadway for Orlando organizers Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley are the presenters of the gathering (in association with Your Kids, Our Kids), touted as "highlighting the diversity and hope that is America at its best."

It's a song of hope, of peace, a healing prayer for a country in time of crisis. We need it now more than ever." —Billy Porter

Mueller, now on the boards in Waitress, won a Tony for portraying Carole King in “Beautiful” and will perform the title song from that show. “Hate comes from a lack of love, so we can’t fight it with more of its own toxicity, we have to fill it with love,” she says. “There are really big things at stake. Things we can’t save or solidify or safeguard alone. We have to think bigger; we have to ask for help; we have to reach out to one another and band together. I hope this concert can be an example of that.”

Tickets will be priced from $25-50 and can be purchased here.